TRANSPORT

Cycling: Greater London

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) fatal and (b) serious injuries were suffered by cyclists in London in each of the last 10 years.

Robert Goodwill: The number of reported (a) killed and (b) seriously injured cyclists in London in each of the last 10 years is given in the table below:
	
		
			 Number of killed and seriously injured cyclists in London: 2003-12 
			  Number of casualties: 
			  (a) Killed (b) Serious 
			 2003 19 419 
			 2004 8 332 
			 2005 21 351 
			 2006 19 373 
			 2007 15 446 
			 2008 15 430 
			 2009 13 420 
			 2010 10 458 
			 2011 16 555 
			 2012 14 659 
		
	
	Data for the year 2013 will be available in June 2014.

Fuels: Prices

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment his Department has made of whether there is a correlation between the price of (a) petrol and (b) diesel and the levels of traffic accidents and car journeys in the UK.

Robert Goodwill: The Department’s modelling and appraisal guidance contains values to be used by transport modellers for realism testing for models (WebTAG unit M2:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/275597/webtag-tag-unit-m2-variable-demand-modelling.pdf
	see paragraph 6.4.14). The guidance on fuel cost elasticity is set at a decrease of 0.3% in traffic for a 1% increase in fuel cost. This value is based on a number of independent studies of transport demand. This is the value used in the national transport model and published in Road Transport Forecasts 2013:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-transport-forecasts-2013
	(see paragraphs 1.34 and 1.35 on page 14). This refers to fuel cost generally. The Department does not have estimates for petrol and diesel separately.
	The Department does not have quantified estimates of the relationship between fuel cost and accidents.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which High Speed 2 station designs will include international arrivals and departures.

Robert Goodwill: The proposals in the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill currently enable the provision of international facilities at the Curzon Street, Birmingham Interchange and West London (Old Oak Common) stations.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what anticipated construction costs of building High Speed 2 are for each year of its construction.

Robert Goodwill: The annual breakdown of the costs of HS2 up to the financial year 2020-21 is published in ‘Investing in Britain’s Future’, published in June 2013 at the time of spending round 2013. The precise details of future profiles for the period beyond 2020-21 will be set at future spending reviews.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on what date all properties in each local authority area affected by Phase 1 and Phase 2 of High Speed 2 or situated above the proposed tunnelled sections of High Speed 2 were purchased (a) under the HS2 exceptional hardship scheme and (b) by compulsory purchase; and what was paid for each such property.

Robert Goodwill: No properties have been acquired through compulsory purchase. Properties acquired under the exceptional hardship schemes for Phase 1 and Phase 2 are listed in the tables, which have been placed in the Libraries of the House.

Nurseries

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 4W on nurseries, whether his Department's workplace nurseries access the Government's tax relief scheme for workplace nurseries.

Stephen Hammond: The Department’s childcare vouchers schemes are fully compliant with the Government’s tax relief schemes as set out under section 318 ITEPA 2003. Of the two nursery provision areas in Hastings and Swansea, the latter is run by a “third party” organisation, therefore, it is not for the Department to comment if has access to the Government’s tax it relief scheme.

Parking: Pedestrian Areas

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  if his Department will take steps to prevent unnecessary pavement parking;
	(2)  if his Department will commission an assessment of the dangers and problems of vehicles parked on pavements.

Robert Goodwill: The Department has no plans to commission a report into pavement parking.
	In London there is a general ban on parking on the footway. In the rest of England there is no such prohibition, but local authorities outside London have wide-ranging powers to make traffic regulation orders to prohibit pavement parking on designated lengths of highway or over a wide area.

Railways: Brighton

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to improve rail services in the Brighton travel to work area; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: The new TSGN franchise, as well as using the new rolling stock which will be phased into service from 2016, will require the franchisee to meet ambitious targets to improve punctuality and reliability performance, service quality and passenger satisfaction. We have also made clear to bidders that they can receive extra evaluation credit for submitting proposals that exceed our specified train service and quality requirements.

Road Traffic: Greater London

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of trends in the levels of (a) congestion and (b) traffic accidents in London in each of the last 10 years.

Robert Goodwill: Road congestion is measured in the Department by average morning peak speeds. Estimates of average weekday morning peak speeds, on locally managed ‘A’ roads in London between 2007 and 2013 are presented in the table below. The first calendar year in this series is 2007 and earlier years are not available. Over the last six years, average morning peak speeds in London rose by 3.8% between 2007 and 2009, remained relatively stable until 2011, before falling by 2.7% between 2011 and 2013.
	
		
			 Average weekday morning peak speeds on locally managed ‘A’ roads in London 
			  Average morning peak speeds in London1,2 
			 2007 15.9 
			 2008 16.1 
			 2009 16.5 
			 2010 16.4 
			 2011 16.5 
			 2012 16.3 
			 2013 16.1 
			 1 Morning peak defined as 7am to 10am. School holiday periods and the month of August are excluded 2 Average speeds are measured in both directions of the road network 
		
	
	Equivalent estimates for individual London boroughs can be found on the Department for Transport’s website at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/279125/cgn0206.xls
	The number of reported personal injury road accidents of all severities in London in the last 10 years can be found in the table below:
	
		
			 Reported personal injury road accidents in London, 2003-12 
			  Accidents 
			 2003 31,844 
			 2004 28,778 
			 2005 26,812 
			 2006 24,829 
			 2007 23,265 
			 2008 23,160 
			 2009 23,279 
			 2010 24,145 
			 2011 24,468 
			 2012 24,097 
		
	
	Data for year 2013 will be available in June 2014.

Roads: Accidents

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what change there has been in the level of accidents attributable to congestion in each of the last 10 years.

Robert Goodwill: The information requested is not collected by the Department.

Rolling Stock: North East

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the average age of rolling stock serving the (a) Tees Valley Line and (b) Esk Valley Line is.

Stephen Hammond: The rolling stock operated on these two lines is a mixture of Class 142 and Class 156 units which were constructed between 1985 and 1989.
	However, the age of rolling stock is a crude measure of quality—as a properly planned refurbishment of an older train can result in a very pleasant travelling environment and a “new train feel” but at a fraction of the cost of a new unit.
	Information on the average age of rolling stock is available from the Office of Rail Regulation’s website, by following this link:
	http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/53dcc4e1-3223-48f9-9e9c-10d51359cdd7

DEFENCE

Afghanistan

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department has had any discussions with the Government of Afghanistan concerning future basing of UK unmanned aircraft systems in that country after 2014. [R]

Mark Francois: To date, there have been no discussions with the Government of Afghanistan about the future basing of UK unmanned aircraft systems in Afghanistan after 2014.

Aircraft Carriers

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which companies have been awarded sub-contracts for construction of HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales since June 2013; at which sites he expects work under each such contracts to be carried out; and what the monetary value is of each such contract.

Philip Dunne: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 6 June 2013 (Official Report, column 1279W).

Armed Forces: Complaints

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the Answer of 27 March 2014, Official Report, column 315W, on armed forces: complaints, how many mid-year annual reports were not completed in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: Information on the completion of mid-year reviews for regular service personnel is not collected directly and is therefore not held.

Armed Forces: Pensions

Michael Crockart: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  what recent discussions his Department has had with the Scottish Government on the payment of armed forces pensions in the event of Scottish independence;
	(2)  what inflation adjustment measures are applied to the pensions paid to armed forces pensioners resident outside the UK.

Anna Soubry: Armed forces pensions are currently uprated annually in April using the consumer price index (CPI) figure from the previous September. These are occupational pensions and are therefore paid, including any CPI increase, to scheme members wherever they reside in the world.
	The UK Government are confident that the people of Scotland will continue to support remaining within the UK. There have, therefore, been no discussions with the Scottish Government about this matter.

DSG Ashchurch

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether (a) a bat, (b) a dormouse, (c) a crested newt and (d) an owl survey has been carried out at defence infrastructure organisation site Ashchurch; what the result of each such survey was; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Murrison: A baseline ecological survey was undertaken at Ashchurch in 2008 and updated in 2012. Following this survey no detailed assessments were undertaken for owls, as there have been no sightings or evidence of protected birds, or dormice, due to no suitable habitat being identified.
	Further detailed studies have been carried out for both crested newts and bats. Results of these surveys showed there was no evidence of crested newts, and little evidence of bat activity across Ashchurch. However, one building had a small bat roost and there was a possibility of a bat roost in a second building.

War Graves: Padstow

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will take steps to ensure that anonymous military graves at Padstow Cemetery are updated in situations where the identity of the former soldier has been discovered.

Anna Soubry: A claim as to the identity of an individual buried in Padstow Cemetery in a grave bearing a headstone with the inscription “A Royal Marine of the Great War”, is currently awaiting review by officials in the Joint Casualty & Compassionate Centre. If the claim is supported by clear and convincing evidence they will task the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to replace the headstone with a new memorial bearing the individual’s name.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Council Tax: Floods

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authorities affected by the recent floods are offering council tax discounts to flooded-out householders under section 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 3 April 2014
	The Prime Minister announced on 19 February 2014 that the Government will reimburse local authorities for providing council tax discounts for flooded homes. Some 48 local authorities have reported that they had already offered discounts by 17 March, with a further 63 planning to do so by using their discretionary powers under section 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. It is for local authorities to determine whether they wish to take up the Government's offer of funding, depending on the precise scale and extent of local flooding.

Council Tax: Lancaster

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what reports he has received of levels of council tax set by Lancaster district council for 2014-15.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 3 April 2014
	I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 7 April 2014, Official Report, column 66W.

Families: Disadvantaged

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how self-reported data from local authorities on the Troubled Families programme are audited.

Kris Hopkins: All results are approved within each local authority's internal audit arrangements and under the statutory authority of the chief executive. My Department then undertakes a verification process on a sample of claims made.

Local Government Finance

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how the £320 million Transformation Challenge Award for 2014-15 and 2015-16 will be funded; and whether it will be top-sliced from existing grants.

Brandon Lewis: The £320 million Transformation Challenge Award for 2014-15 and 2015-16 will be funded from the £100 million collaboration and efficiency fund announced at the spending round 2013, the £200 million capital receipt flexibility allowed to local authorities following the sate of assets, and £20 million from the Department's own resources. No funding will be top-sliced from any existing grants.

Local Government Finance

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he plans for the Service Transformation Panel to (a) form, (b) invite bids, (c) announce bid deadlines and (d) consider bids.

Brandon Lewis: On 2 April 2014, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the right hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander), and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles), announced the Service Transformation Panel. A full list of panel members will be published shortly.
	The panel will gather evidence of the opportunities and barriers of integrating local public services in order to make recommendations advising what needs to happen locally and nationally to increase the pace and scale of integration between local public services. There is no bid process as part of the panel's work.

Local Government Finance

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to his written statement of 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 81WS on improving public services, how much each local authority will receive from the £90 million funding made available to all councils so they can start investing to save; and how the allocation of such funding will be calculated.

Brandon Lewis: The £90 million funding which has been made available immediately for local authorities to start investing to save is made up of three different elements:
	£1 million for nine local authorities working with the public service transformation network to speed up and scale up their transformation plans; and £6 million for 13 local authorities that narrowly missed out on funding in the 2013-14 Transformation Challenge Award bidding process. The allocations for these funds were published on 3 April.
	£83 million of unused capitalisation provision has been returned to all councils in England. This can be used as councils see fit. In line with the published capitalisation policy and procedures for 2013-14, the unused capitalisation provision has been distributed to all authorities in accordance with their share of the 2013-14 start-up funding assessment.
	Full lists of local authorities' allocations for each of these elements are set out in tables that have been deposited in the Library of the House.

Local Government: Publicity

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to which local authorities he has written about their compliance with the publicity code asking them to take steps to ensure complete compliance with that code; and whether each of these letters was copied to the leader of the opposition of the local authority.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 7 April 2014
	On 25 March, departmental officials wrote to the chief executives of every principal local authority in England, advising how the Secretary of State is minded to exercise his powers to direct compliance with the code of recommended practice on local authority publicity. On the same day, I wrote individually to the leaders of the royal borough of Greenwich, London borough of Hackney, Newham council, Nottingham city council, Tower Hamlets council and the London borough of Waltham Forest. Without prejudicing any formal consideration by the Secretary of State, I observed that there were suggestions that those councils in particular might not be complying with the code of recommended practice on local authority publicity. I suggested that prior to the Secretary of State's new powers for directing compliance with the code on publicity coming on-stream at the end of March, they take steps to ensure that their council is in complete compliance with the provisions of the code. Those letters were copied where applicable to the leaders of the opposition in those authorities.

New Towns: Ebbsfleet

Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of the development announced in Budget 2014 at Ebbsfleet will consist of affordable homes.

Nicholas Boles: The Government do not impose a particular level of affordable housing for housing schemes. The percentage of affordable units will be a matter for local decision making, taking account of the local authorities local plans and site viability. Unrealistic section 106 agreements result in no development, no regeneration and no community benefits.

Official Hospitality

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his Department's (a) catering and (b) hospitality budget was in (i) 2012 and (ii) 2013.

Brandon Lewis: My Department has no separate budget for catering and hospitality in 2012 and 2013.
	To assist the right hon. Member, I would note that this Government have dramatically cut spending compared with the last Labour Government and put in place far tighter rules and restrictions on spending:
	The Department spent £553,230 on catering and hospitality in 2008-09, and £456,142 in 2009-10.
	By 2012-13, spending had been reduced to £58,882 (plus £16,727 of delayed billing from the year before).
	We anticipate spending in the region of £36,000 in the year 2013-14 (the precise figure will be audited at financial year end).
	The expenditure undertaken is essentially for light refreshments for a large number of small official events such as:
	European Regional Development Fund events (meetings with external visitors and Local Management Committee meetings);
	Conferences and workshops with representatives of local government, housing, planning and local communities;
	Public roadshows and Portas Pilot events;
	All-day recruitment assessment centres, training and induction courses.
	We do not routinely incur any expenditure on refreshments for Ministers other than “de minimis” expenditure on tea and coffee for Ministers’ meetings with external visitors, or on the rare occasion when Ministers undertake overnight stays on official business outside London.
	Our departmental savings have also been assisted by terminating ministerial group spending on Government procurement cards, as practiced by the Labour Government at taxpayers' expense at the likes of Sky City Casino, the Cinnamon Club, the Wolseley, Brasserie 44, Boisdales, Inn the Park, Mango Tree, Shepherds, Incognico, Buffalo Bar, Mr Chu's China Palace, Tantric Jazz and Fat Tuesdays.
	We have showed that there is considerable scope for the public sector to generate significant savings in this area, as evident from the ongoing saving of up to half a million pounds a year.
	To place our savings in context, as noted in the answer of 8 April 2014, Official Report, House of Lords, column 270WA, when the right hon. Member was Secretary of State, he spent £444,891 on catering, hospitality and refreshments in 2008-09 and £552,367 in 2009-10.
	I know that the right hon. Member has a particular interest in biscuits, so to help quantify this amount, his spending in his last year in office is equivalent today to buying 720,479 packets of Jammie Dodgers from Waitrose (albeit, with a free cup of coffee thrown in).

Redundancy

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many staff have (a) taken voluntary redundancy or (b) been made compulsorily redundant from his Department since May 2010; and how many of these (i) received special severance payments or (ii) were subject to compromise agreements.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 7 April 2014
	The number of staff that left the Department on (a) voluntary redundancy and (b) compulsory redundancy terms from May 2010 to March 2014 is set out as follows.
	
		
			 May 2010 to March 2014 Number 
			 Compulsory Redundancy 8 
			 Voluntary Severance or Redundancy 522 
			 Total 530 
		
	
	None of these staff (i) received special severance payments or (ii) were subject to compromise agreements.
	Exit figures through 2010-12 reflect the completion of the Department's major restructuring programme. Our departmental audited annual accounts for the core Department show that total staff costs fell from £216 million in 2009-10 to £99 million in 2012-13, a reduction of 54% in cash terms, or a saving of £117 million a year. The number of staff has been reduced from 3,781 full-time equivalent in 2009-10 to 1,681 in 2012-13, a reduction of 56%.

Rents

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will place in the Library the model and detailed methodology used for the forecast of the effects of affordable rent on housing benefit expenditure published by his Department in the document, Impact Assessment for Affordable Rent, in June 2011.

Kris Hopkins: The affordable rent impact assessment, published in June 2011, sets out the methodology and assumptions used at the time to model the expected impact of affordable rent on housing benefit expenditure. The impact assessment is published here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6021/1918816.pdf

Wind Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 31 March, Official Report, column 439W, on wind power, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the use of recoveries in the planning system with regards to onshore wind developments on (a) investment in onshore wind, (b) energy bills, (c) competition in the market, (d) community benefit and (e) onshore wind supply chain and jobs.

Kris Hopkins: This type of assessment has not been carried out by this Department. Planning is a quasi-judicial process and decisions on planning proposals should be made in accordance with planning law. This requires that applications for planning permission must be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. I refer the hon. Member to the written statement of 10 October 2013, Official Report, columns 30-31WS, which explains why we are giving particular scrutiny to planning appeals involving renewable energy developments.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Coal: Imports

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what proportion of UK coal-generating capacity was provided by imports from each country in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Michael Fallon: Figures on coal imports used for generation are not available by country.
	However, in 2012, 39,619 thousand tonnes of steam coal (mainly used by coal-fired stations) were imported into the UK, representing 72% of coal used for electricity generation (54,906 thousand tonnes).
	Imports of steam coal in 2012 were:
	
		
			 Country Tonnage (thousand tonnes) 
			 Russia 17,459 
			 Colombia 11,749 
			 United States of America 8,858 
			 European Union1 583 
			 Republic of South Africa 546 
			 Canada 153 
			 Other Countries 272 
			 Total all countries 39,619 
			 1 European Union includes non-EU routed through the Netherlands. Source: DUKES table 2.1, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/solid-fuels-and-derived-gases-chapter-2-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes Statistics for 2013 will be available in DUKES 2014, which is published on 31 July 2014.

UK Coal

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West of 3 April 2014, on what dates and with which representative of the European Commission he spoke about the future of UK Coal.

Michael Fallon: Ministers and officials in the Department regularly meet officials from the European Commission.

Wind Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent discussions he has had with the (a) Prime Minister, (b) Chancellor of the Exchequer and (c) Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on the imposition of a cap on the construction and capacity of onshore wind developments.

Michael Fallon: DECC Ministers meet regularly other Ministers to discuss a range of issues.

Wind Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on (a) delays and (b) the use of recoveries in the planning system for onshore wind developments.

Michael Fallon: DECC Ministers meet regularly other Ministers to discuss a range of issues.

Wind Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will make an assessment of the effects of a cap on the construction and capacity of onshore wind developments on (a) consumer bills, (b) investment in onshore wind, (c) competition in the market, (d) community benefit and (e) onshore wind supply chain and jobs.

Gregory Barker: There is no cap on current deployment of onshore wind (or any other renewable energy technology). It is the role of the planning system to ensure that wind farms are only built where the impacts are, or can be made, acceptable.
	Onshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of large-scale renewable energy—supporting onshore wind in 2013 added around £9 per year to the average UK energy bill. Since 2010 DECC has recorded announced investments by developers in onshore wind totalling around £4.6 billion, with the potential to support over 7,700 jobs; and, around the UK, onshore wind developments are providing community funds and other benefits to local people, such as money off electricity bills.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Cross Border Co-operation: Republic of Ireland

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent assessment she has made of the level of co-operation between the security forces in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Theresa Villiers: There continues to be very close contact between the PSNI and An Garda Siochana to tackle the threat faced from dissident republican activity on both sides of the border. Every opportunity will be taken to consider ways to improve cross-border working relationships and deepen the collective understanding of the threat, building on the excellent co-operation that exists.

JUSTICE

Aspire to Change

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  what (a) advice and (b) written guidance (i) he, (ii) Ministers and (iii) officials in his Department have given to Aspire to Change (A2C) since December 2013; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how much has been paid by his Department to Aspire to Change (A2C) since its formation; for what purpose each payment was made; what assessment he has made of the value for money of such expenditure; and if he will make a statement;
	(3)  what (a) discussions with and (b) representations from Aspire to Change (A2C) (i) he, (ii) Ministers and (iii) officials in his Department have had since December 2013; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: Under transforming rehabilitation, we are opening up the market to a diverse range of new rehabilitation providers, so that we get the best out of the public, voluntary and private sectors, at the local as well as national level. Managers in a number of probation trusts, including Essex, have set up mutuals so that they can bid to become owners of the new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). In line with wider Government policy, we have encouraged those trusts that have been interested to consider the mutual option. All those developing mutuals have had the opportunity to bid for further advice, guidance and assistance through the Cabinet Office mutual support programme (MSP). The MSP has allocated a total of £1.5 million to support prospective mutuals with the greatest potential. Support to organisations has been provided in two phases. Phase 1 supported organisations to prepare them for the competition. Phase 2 is providing further support to those that passed the first stage of the competition throughout the negotiation phase and, if they are successful in the competition, support their transition to a mutual.
	We launched the competition to establish the owners of the 21 CRCs on 19 September 2013. Competition rules preclude this Department from contacting potential bidders other than through the competition process so that is, and will remain the only avenue for Aspire 2 Change Ltd. To communicate with the Department until the competition is completed.

Crime: Farms

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what prosecutions there have been for (a) sheep rustling and (b) other crimes on farms in each of the last three years.

Damian Green: The Ministry of Justice court proceedings database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales. This database holds information on offences provided by the statutes under which proceedings are brought but not the specific circumstances of each case. It is not possible to separately identify from this centrally held information offences of sheep rustling from other offences of theft. Nor is it possible to separately identify which offences occurred on a farm. This information may be held on the individual court files, which can be checked only at disproportionate cost.

Crimes of Violence

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what consultation his Department undertook before excluding damage sustained in utero as a result of illegal drug taking from the definition of a crime of violence under Annex B paragraph 4(e) of the criminal compensation scheme; and if he will make a statement.

Damian Green: I sympathise deeply with anyone who suffers from an injury or debilitating condition sustained in utero. As part of the ‘Getting it right for victims and witnesses’ consultation, which was published in January 2012, we looked in detail at the definition of a “crime of violence” for the purposes of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS). After the consultation, a decision was taken to exclude injuries sustained by an unborn child if the mother willingly consumes harmful substances during pregnancy. We implemented a new scheme in November 2012.
	Below is a link to the ‘Getting it right for victims and witnesses’ consultation paper and the Government's response.
	https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/victims-witnesses

Criminal Injuries Compensation

David Nuttall: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many new cases were allocated by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to be dealt with by each of it’s regional teams in each of the last three years.

Damian Green: The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (OCA) divides its case work between six teams, each of which handles applications from a particular region of Great Britain. All of these teams work from a single office. Northern Ireland has a separate Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, which CICA does not administer. CICA publishes the total number of cases it receives each year in its annual reports but these are not broken down by team.
	The six regional teams are numbered as follows:
	1. Scotland and Wales
	2. North-West England
	3. North-East England
	4. Midlands
	5. South England
	6. London
	The following table sets out how many cases each region received in each of the last three reporting years. The sum of cases allocated to each region will differ from the total received by CICA each year because some clearly ineligible cases are refused before they are sent to a regional team to investigate.
	
		
			 Number of cases 
			  Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 Region 5 Region 6 
			 2010-11 9,276 10,805 10,167 9,601 10,619 8,213 
			 2011-12 8,897 10,294 9,357 9,450 10,749 8,129 
			 2012-13 7,155 8,058 7,578 7,833 8,976 6,196

Fraud: Social Security Benefits

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many and what proportion of (a) men and (b) women convicted of benefit fraud in each of the last five years received a prison sentence; and what the average prison sentence was for those of each gender so convicted;
	(2)  how many (a) men and (b) women convicted of benefit fraud in each of the last five years received (i) a conditional discharge, (ii) a fine, (iii) a community order and (iv) a suspended prison sentence.

Jeremy Wright: The Department for Work and Pensions operates a tough series of specific penalties for benefit fraud that run alongside the criminal justice system. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 toughened penalties for those who commit, or attempt to commit benefit fraud. We have introduced a financial administrative penalty as an alternative to prosecution which, for the first time, can be applied to attempted fraud.
	The Government have also introduced a tougher loss of benefit penalty to restrict benefits to people convicted of benefit fraud or who have accepted an administrative penalty. Benefits can be reduced for periods of 13 weeks, 26 weeks or three years, dependent on the number of benefit fraud offences committed within a specified period, where the latest offence results in a conviction.
	Judges make their decisions independently of Government, based on the facts of each case. The maximum penalty for fraud is 10 years in prison.
	The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates court found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences relating to benefit fraud, with sentencing outcomes and the average custodial sentence length by gender, in England and Wales, from 2008 to 2012 (latest data available), can be viewed in the table.
	Please note that court proceedings statistics for the year 2013 are planned to be published by the Ministry of Justice in May 2014.
	
		
			 Defendants proceeded against at magistrates court found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences relating to benefit fraud,1 with sentencing outcomes and the average custodial sentence length, by gender, England and Wales, 2008-122, 3 
			      Results 
			 Sex Year Proceeded against Found guilty4 Sentenced5 Absolute discharge Conditional discharge Fine 
			 Male 2008 4,393 3,571 3,572 21 850 736 
			  2009 3,337 2,831 2,855 5 499 602 
			  2010 3,036 2,603 2,624 4 394 574 
			  2011 2,911 2,531 2,556 — 385 479 
			  2012 3,850 3,303 3,341 10 570 726 
			         
			 Female 2008 4,996 4,199 4,231 14 1,305 578 
			  2009 4,127 3,511 3,544 7 845 532 
			  2010 3,692 3,209 3,263 7 618 483 
			  2011 3,447 2,959 3,014 4 505 418 
			  2012 4,440 3,798 3,847 5 877 625 
		
	
	
		
			   Results 
			 Sex Year Community sentence Suspended sentence Immediate custody Otherwise dealt with Average custodial sentence length (months)6 
			 Male 2008 1,363 358 172 69 7.85 
			  2009 1,137 413 179 20 8.69 
			  2010 1,130 405 106 11 8.99 
			  2011 1,043 473 163 13 8.24 
			  2012 1,435 446 135 19 6.76 
			        
			 Female 2008 1,629 541 90 73 7.25 
			  2009 1,438 588 121 13 7.82 
			  2010 1,377 667 102 9 7.72 
			  2011 1,204 755 123 5 7.17 
			  2012 1,512 703 115 10 5.99 
			 ‘— = Nil. 1 Includes the following offences: Social Security Administration Act 1992 added by Social Security Administration (Fraud) Act 1997—Dishonest representation for obtaining benefits. Social Security Administration Act 1992—False representation. Contravention of regulations etc. Social Security Administration Act 1992 as amended by Social security Act 1998—Knowingly being concerned in fraudulent evasion of contributions. Social Security Administration Act 1992—Illegal possession of documents relating to benefits etc. 2 The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. 3 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 4 The number of defendants found guilty in a particular year may exceed the number proceeded against as the proceedings in the magistrates court took place in an earlier year and the defendants were found guilty at the Crown court in the following year; or the defendants were found guilty of a different offence to that for which they were originally proceeded against. 5 The number of offenders sentenced can differ from those found guilty as it may be the case that a defendant found guilty in a particular year, and committed for sentence at the Crown court, may be sentenced in the following year. 6 Excludes life and indeterminate sentences. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.

Homicide

Steve Rotheram: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many individuals convicted of (a) murder or (b) attempted murder in each of the last 10 years have been released with exclusion zones forming a part of their licence arrangements;
	(2)  on how many occasions an individual on licence for an attempted murder conviction has been granted permission to enter an exclusion zone which has been formed as part of their licence arrangement in each of the last 10 years;
	(3)  how many times a convicted attempted murderer released on licence has been allowed to enter an exclusion zone formed as part of their licence arrangement within one week of their release in each of the last 10 years.

Jeremy Wright: Unfortunately, it is not possible to answer these questions without carrying out a manual search through all relevant individual offender files, at disproportionate cost.
	Conditions such as an exclusion zone may be applied to an offender's licence where it is necessary to manage the risk that the individual offender poses following release into the community—and where it is proportionate to that risk. Where qualifying victims have exercised their statutory right to make representations about the offender's licence conditions, the exclusion zone set will take into account those representations. In each case, the supervising officer proposes conditions as appropriate and requests these from the appropriate authority, which applies it to the licence on behalf of the Secretary of State. In the case of determinate sentence prisoners, the authority is the prison governor; in the case of indeterminate sentence prisoners, or others whose release is on the direction of the Parole Board, the authority is the Parole Board.
	These conditions must be kept under review, and are intended to be flexible to the possible resettlement needs of an offender in the community and any new risks that arise.
	An exclusion zone will rarely be absolute, as it is recognised that there may be exceptional reasons why the offender needs to enter the exclusion zone. Thus, where an exclusion zone is included in the offender's licence, it will usually be open to the supervising officer to grant the offender permission to enter the exclusion zone, for a temporary period and for a specific purpose.
	As this is a purely localised decision, there is no national record of the number of occasions such permission has been given. It is, therefore, not possible to answer the questions regarding how many times an offender has been granted permission to enter the exclusion zone applied to his licence.
	Data from the last 10 years are not available in the required electronic format to answer the question relating to numbers of offenders with exclusion zones included in their licence. To provide such information would again require a manual interrogation of offenders' records and this would incur disproportionate cost.

Legal Aid Scheme

David Mowat: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much in legal aid claims has been paid to Leigh Day and Public Interest Lawyers in each of the last three years.

Shailesh Vara: The net payments to these firms over the past three years are shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Public Interest Lawyers (£) Leigh Day and Co (£) 
			 2010/11 439,268.02 1,182,080.21 
			 2011/12 331,238.85 1,216,888.66 
			 2012/13 54,387.48 569,730.45 
		
	
	These payments cover all work undertaken by the firms under legal aid. The payments made will be offset by recoupment on successful cases where the opponent has paid the costs.

Magistrates Courts

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average length of a magistrates court proceeding was in (a) all cases and (b) cases relating to the non-payment of the television licence fee.

Damian Green: The majority of criminal cases in the magistrates court are dealt with in a single day. Around two thirds of all cases are dealt with in a single hearing with 90% of television licence evasion cases requiring only one hearing. The Government have said that they will examine whether television licence evasion should be decriminalised.

Oakwood Prison

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans are in place to increase the operational capacity at HMP Oakwood.

Jeremy Wright: There are no plans to increase the operational capacity of HMP Oakwood.

Prison Accommodation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how much has been spent purchasing additional prison places from existing privately run prisons in each month since May 2010;
	(2)  from which companies additional spaces have been purchased in which prisons in each month since May 2010;
	(3)  how many spaces were agreed under each contract with a private provider for additional spaces in existing prisons signed since May 2010; how long each contract was for; and what the value was of the contract (a) in total and (b) per space agreed.

Jeremy Wright: A significant amount of this information is not held centrally, and we would need to interrogate a very large volume of separate files to obtain the information required and then review and collate that information. By doing so we would incur disproportionate costs.

Prisoners

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people in each prison establishment are not being held in relation to criminal proceedings; and what the reason is for their being so held in each case.

Jeremy Wright: As of the 31 December 2013, 1,230 people were being held in prisons in England and Wales not in relation to criminal proceedings.
	Of these, 1,214 were being held as immigration detainees and 16 were being held for civil offences (for example non-payment of a debt, contempt of court, or breach of an injunction).
	The agreement to hold time-served foreign national offenders (immigration detainees) in prisons is set out in a service level agreement between NOMS and the Home Office and is designed to support the Home Office in achieving its objectives for removal.
	Reducing the FNO population is a top priority for this Government. We are working hard to reduce the flow of FNOs into our prison system and increase the number of FNOs removed from the UK through Prisoner Transfer Agreements (PTAs); the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) and Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS).
	Table 1 below provides a breakdown of the population who are not held in relation to criminal proceedings by prison establishment.
	
		
			 Table 1: Non criminal prison population by establishment, England and Wales, 31 December 2013 
			 Establishment Non criminal population 
			 Altcourse 5 
			 Ashfield 1 
			 Aylesbury 2 
			 Bedford 11 
			 Belmarsh 12 
			 Birmingham 30 
			 Brinsford 3 
			 Bristol 6 
			 Brixton 15 
			 Bronzefield 6 
			 Bullingdon 31 
			 Bure 6 
			 Cardiff 5 
			 Channings Wood 4 
			 Chelmsford 20 
			 Coldingley 4 
			 Dartmoor 2 
			 Deerbolt 3 
			 Doncaster 18 
			 Dovegate 3 
			 Drake Hall 3 
			 Durham 4 
			 Eastwood Park 3 
			 Elmley (Sheppey cluster) 44 
			 Erlestoke 1 
			 Everthorpe 3 
			 Exeter 3 
			 Featherstone 7 
			 Feltham 19 
			 Forest Bank 18 
			 Foston Hall 4 
			 Garth 1 
			 GlenParva 13 
			 Guys Marsh 3 
			 Haverigg 2 
			 Hewell 24 
			 High Down 31 
			 Highpoint (North and South) 34 
			 Hindley 1 
		
	
	
		
			 Holloway 23 
			 Holme House 9 
			 Hull 3 
			 Huntercombe 35 
			 Isis 5 
			 Lancaster Farms 3 
			 Leeds 25 
			 Leicester 11 
			 Lewes 7 
			 Lincoln 23 
			 Lindholme 2 
			 Littlehey 17 
			 Liverpool 13 
			 Long Lartin 2 
			 Low Newton 2 
			 Maidstone 52 
			 Manchester 10 
			 Moorland/Hatfield 27 
			 Mount 10 
			 New Hall 1 
			 Norwich 16 
			 Nottingham 16 
			 Oakwood 5 
			 Pare 4 
			 Pentonville 62 
			 Peterborough 18 
			 Portland 3 
			 Preston 3 
			 Ranby 13 
			 Risley 15 
			 Rochester 1 
			 Stafford 4 
			 Stoke Heath 6 
			 Styal 4 
			 Swaleside (Sheppey cluster) 1 
			 Swansea 1 
			 Swinfen Hall 1 
			 Thameside 56 
			 Wakefield 2 
			 Wandsworth 195 
			 Wayland 4 
			 Wealstun 1 
			 Winchester 3 
			 Wolds 2 
			 Woodhill 21 
			 Wormwood Scrubs 84 
			 Wymott 4 
			 Total 1,230 
			 Data Sources and Quality: These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Prisoners: Repatriation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  what length of custodial sentence was given to each foreign national returned to their home country as part of the EU prisoner transfer agreement in each year since that agreement came into force; and how long each had left to serve at the time of the repatriation;
	(2)  how many UK citizens have been returned to the UK from abroad to serve their custodial sentences under the EU prisoner transfer agreement in each year since that agreement came into force; of what offences they were convicted; what length of custodial sentence they received; and how long they had left to serve in custody at the time of their repatriation;
	(3)  what crimes were committed by those foreign nationals who have been returned from the UK to their home countries under the EU prisoner transfer agreement in each year since that agreement came into force;
	(4)  how many offenders have been returned from the UK to each country under the EU prisoner transfer agreement in each year since that agreement came into force.

Jeremy Wright: The council framework decision 2008/909/JHA (The EU PTA) entered into force on 5 December 2011.
	To date 18 member states (including the United Kingdom) have implemented the agreement. The European Court of Justice will have jurisdiction over the measure from 1 December 2014 and member states may face infraction proceedings if they have not implemented the agreement by then.
	Use of the EU PTA is an early stage and the number of prisoners transferred remains low. However, we expect to see a significant increase in the number of prisoner transferred once the agreement has been implemented by all member states.
	To date 17 prisoners have been transferred to other jurisdictions.
	The following table sets out the number of prisoners transferred from England and Wales to other EU member states since the implementation of the EU PTA in December 2011.
	
		
			 Receiving State Year of Transfer Sentence Length Offence Type Time left to serve in the United Kingdom on the date of transfer (days) 
			 Belgium 2013 8 years Wounding with intent 1,016 
			 Belgium 2013 5 years, 5 months Facilitating illegal entry 634 
			 Belgium 2013 9 years Drugs 1,135 
			 Latvia 2013 10 years Death by dangerous driving 882 
			 Malta 2013 6 years Sexual offences 578 
			 The Netherlands 2013 7 years Drugs 1,043 
			 The Netherlands 2013 15 years Drugs 2,098 
			 The Netherlands 2013 10 years Drugs 1,189 
			 The Netherlands 2013 6 years Drugs 544 
			 The Netherlands 2013 5 years, 3 months Sex Offences 437 
			 The Netherlands 2013 6 years, 6 months Drugs 793 
			 The Netherlands 2013 5 years, 6 months Drugs 608 
		
	
	
		
			 The Netherlands 2013 5 years, 6 months Drugs 638 
			 The Netherlands 2013 Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection Sexual Offences n/a 
			 The Netherlands 2013 4 years, 8 months Drugs 355 
			 The Netherlands 2013 7 years Drugs 705 
			 The Netherlands 2014 4 years Drugs 388 
			 n/a = Not applicable. 
		
	
	The following table sets out the number of British nationals transferred from other EU member states to England and Wales since the EU PTA entered into force in December 2011. Some 10 prisoners have been transferred.
	
		
			 Sentence State Year of Transfer Sentence Length Offence Type Time left to serve in custody following transfer (days) 
			 Belgium 2013 3 years, 11 months Drugs 415 
			 Belgium 2013 5 years Human Trafficking 476 
			 Belgium 2013 8 years Sexual Offences 1,195 
			 Denmark 2012 14 years Drugs 1,324 
			 Denmark 2012 3 years Drugs 146 
			 Denmark 2012 2 years Fraud 124 
			 Italy 2013 5 year, 4 months Drugs 974 
			 Italy 2013 9 years, 6 months Drugs 1,617 
			 Italy 2013 2 years, 10 months Drugs 267 
			 Italy 2013 15 years, 4 months Drugs 1,847 
			 Notes: 1. The figures given in the tables relate to England and Wales only. The transfer of prisoners to Scotland and to Northern Ireland is a devolved matter, and is therefore the responsibility of the relevant Minister. 2. The numbers reported here are drawn from a Prison Service Case Tracking System. Care is taken when processing these cases but the figures may be subject to inaccuracies associated with any recording system. 
		
	
	All foreign national offenders (FNOs) sentenced to custody are referred to the Home Office for them to consider deportation at the earliest possible opportunity.
	The prisoner transfer process is just one mechanism for removing foreign national offenders. The number of FNOs deported under the early removal scheme (ERS) has increased under this Government. In 2013, we removed nearly 2,000 FNOs under ERS and under the tariff expired removal scheme (TERS), which was introduced in May 2012, we have removed 231 FNOs to date.
	Whereas this Government have begun to reduce the foreign national population in prison since 2010, between 1997 and 2010, the number of foreign nationals in our prisons more than doubled.

Prisons

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many activity spaces per prisoner there were in (a) adult male prisons, (b) adult female prisons, (c) youth male prisons and (d) youth female prisons on 1 March (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012 and (iv) 2013 in (A) the prison estate and (B) each prison.

Jeremy Wright: The information requested is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
	However, the number of activity spaces agreed within each public sector prison establishment's service level agreement for 2013-14 is published at the following location:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/information-access-rights/transparency-data/prison-service-level-agreement-and-probation-trust-contracts
	These documents are a historical record of the public sector prison service level agreements at the point at which they took effect. These agreements remain subject to change, through formal procedures, throughout the year.
	Work in prisons is a key priority to ensure prisoners are engaged purposefully while they are in custody. It also gives them the opportunity to learn skills, and a work ethic which can increase their chances of finding employment on release, a key element to reducing reoffending.
	Our reforms to the incentives and earned privileges national policy framework came into effect in adult prisons on 1 November 2013. Prisoners will be expected to engage in purposeful activity, as well as demonstrate a commitment towards their rehabilitation, reduce their risk of reoffending, behave well and help others if they are to earn privileges.
	The number of prisoners working in industrial activity in public sector prisons increased from around 8,600 in 2010-11 to around 9,700 in 2012-13. This delivered an increase in the total hours worked in industrial activities from 10.6 million hours to 13.1 million hours. In addition there are substantial numbers of prisoners who work to keep prisons running on tasks such as cooking, serving meals, maintenance and cleaning.

Public Expenditure

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what programmes which receive funding from his Department are available solely to (a) men and (b) women.

Simon Hughes: The information required to provide a full response to the question could not be collated within the timeframe available. I will write to the hon. Member providing a full reply in due course.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of extending entitlement to (a) assistance with civil and criminal legal aid, (b) remission for court fees and (c) access to the assisted prison visits programme to all claimants of universal credit once universal credit has been fully rolled out.

Shailesh Vara: I will write to the right hon. Member for East Ham regarding the issues he has raised on legal aid and remission of court fees. On the assisted prison visits, we are liaising further with the Department for Work and Pensions.

TREASURY

National Institute for Medical Research

Matthew Offord: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what cost-benefit analysis he has made of the relocation of the National Institute for Medical Research to King's Cross.

David Willetts: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	The future location of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) was part of the careful consideration and approval of the outline and final business cases for the Francis Crick Institute (at the time known as the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation) according to standard protocols.

National Insurance Contributions

Stephen Timms: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the number of women with (a) two, (b) three, (c) four and (d) five or more jobs; and how many such people do not earn a total income above the lower earnings threshold through all their employments;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the number of (a) people and (b) women who work in more than one job but do not pay national insurance even though their total earnings are above the lower earnings threshold;
	(3)  what estimate he has made of the number of people with (a) two, (b) three, (c) four and (d) five or more jobs; and how many of such people's total earnings do not meet the lower earnings threshold;
	(4)  how many people who do not meet the income threshold required to pay national insurance contributions opt to pay national insurance contributions voluntarily.

David Gauke: Estimates of the number of (a) people and (b) women who work in more than one job but do not pay national insurance, even though their total earnings are above the lower earnings threshold; and, of those, how many are women, are available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-coverage-lower-earnings-limit-and-multiple-jobs
	The rest of the information requested is not available.

Revenue and Customs

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment HM Revenue and Customs has made of the economic viability of its Customs House landholding adjacent to Dover Priory railway station.

David Gauke: HMRC has made no assessment of the economic viability of the Priory Court Dover landholding adjacent to Dover Priory railway station,

Taxation: Self-employed

Mark Prisk: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the additional revenue secured since 2010 as a result of changes to the IR35 tax regulations affecting the self-employed.

David Gauke: The intermediaries' legislation, known as IR35, does not apply to the self-employed. Rather it applies to those providing their services through an intermediary (normally a limited company) who if it were not for the intermediary would otherwise be considered an employee of the client.
	IR35 ensures that under such circumstances broadly the same tax and national insurance contributions are paid as if the individual were directly employed.
	A very minor change to the IR35 legislation was made in 2010 in consequence of the Corporation Taxes Act 2010.
	HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has currently four specialist compliance teams which undertake investigations of intermediaries (commonly called personal service companies) operating across all sectors where potential non-compliance with IR35 is suspected. These teams form part of a restructuring of HMRC's administration of IR35 following recommendations in March 2011 by the Office of Tax Simplification. Revenue secured under IR35 from this direct compliance activity between 6 April 2010 and 5 April 2013 is £2.519 million. Figures for 2013/14 are not currently available.

Unpaid Taxes

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have been issued demand notices for unpaid tax in each of the last five years.

David Gauke: HMRC does not hold data on the total number of letters issued demanding payment of an established and overdue tax debt over the last five years.

WOMEN AND EQUALITIES

Females: New Businesses

Robert Halfon: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what steps she is taking to encourage women to start their own businesses.

Jennifer Willott: We are creating the right conditions for companies to thrive and making it easier for people to start successful new businesses. The Government offer a wide range of support to new businesses, for example, providing advice and support through the Growth Accelerator and improving access to finance through the British Business Bank and the Start Up Loan scheme. Over 37% of Start Up Loans have gone to female entrepreneurs.
	In addition, Government Equalities Office has committed £1.6 million to support rural women's enterprise; £2 million in small grants to help people to set up their own child care business; and contributed £600,000 to the Get Mentoring project which has recruited and trained over 15,000 volunteer business mentors, more than 6,000 of whom are women. We also recently partnered with Young Enterprise and announced the 'Women's Start Up Project'—a scheme to encourage young women studying at undergraduate level to set up and run real start-up businesses.
	These measures are making a difference. In 2010 only 14% of small and medium sized enterprises were either run by women or by a team that was over 50% female; in 2012, this had risen to 19%.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

BBC

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with the BBC Trust regarding the level of income to the BBC from BBC Enterprises; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: BBC Enterprises has been known as BBC Worldwide since 1995—this is the profit-making arm of the BBC. My Department and I are in regular contact with the BBC. No discussions have recently taken place concerning the dividend paid by BBC Worldwide to the BBC.

BBC: USA

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had with the BBC Trust on the sale of BBC content in the US; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: The Secretary of State has had no discussions with the BBC Trust on the sale of BBC content in the US. Under the terms of its charter and agreement the BBC is operationally and editorially independent of Government.

Local Broadcasting: Television

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the level of funding from the public purse for local television in each year to 2020.

Edward Vaizey: As part of the licence fee settlement in October 2010, the BBC agreed to commit up to £25 million to establish the local TV broadcast network up to March 2017. The BBC also agreed to provide up to £5 million per year for the last three years of the licence fee settlement to March 2017 to acquire content from local TV stations, subject to this being suitable for inclusion in a UK public service. There is no commitment for further public funding after the end of this licence fee period.

Private Sector

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many jobs have been transferred from the public to the private sector as a result of privatisations or outsourcing by her Department since May 2010.

Helen Grant: CMS has not outsourced or privatised any parts of its Department.

Rugby: World Cup

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she is taking to promote (a) the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and (b) the Amex Stadium at Falmer as one of the venues for that event; and if she will make a statement.

Helen Grant: In May we reach 500 days to go until the Rugby World Cup and I am working with England 2015, Visit England and Foreign and Commonwealth Office to support the Webb Ellis Trophy Tour to promote the event internationally. I will also be seeking opportunities to support the volunteer programme. I support the regional spread of venues for the Rugby World Cup and I know that England 2015 is working closely with Brighton and Hove council to put on a fantastic celebration of rugby in the area.

Tate Modern

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment she has made of whether the Tate Modern extension project will be completed within budget; and when that project is scheduled for completion.

Edward Vaizey: The Tate Modern project is reviewed periodically by the Major Projects Authority within the Cabinet Office's efficiency and reform group, and the DCMS investment committee, as is usual for a major project of this nature. The building will open in 2016 and the project is on course to meet that target.

Tate Modern

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the funding sources are for the Tate Modern extension project.

Edward Vaizey: The majority of fundraising for the Tate Modern extension project is from private sources, with a contribution of £50 million from Government and £7 million from the Greater London Authority. Recently announced donors include the Wolfson Foundation and the Eyal Ofer Family Foundation.

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 
	(1)  how many complaints have been made to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission about the Work programme on the grounds of equality since June 2011;
	(2)  how many complaints have been made to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission on the treatment of employment and support allowance recipients on the Work programme on the grounds of disability discrimination since June 2011.

Helen Grant: The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent body and I have asked the commission to provide the information. The commission's records of complaints received do not identify specific policy initiatives, such as the Work programme, raised by complainants. Providing a comprehensive and accurate response would require a manual search of files and therefore could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

HEALTH

Abortion

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will issue updated guidance on the two doctor rule for abortions.

Jane Ellison: Guidance on compliance with the Abortion Act 1967 is currently in development and will be published shortly. This will clarify for medical practitioners what is required of them when making a decision under the Act.

Abortion

Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many abortions have been performed in the UK in the last 30 years.

Jane Ellison: Annual totals since 1968 can be found in table la of ‘Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2012 Summary information from the abortion notification forms returned to the chief medical officers of England and Wales’. A copy has been placed in the Library.

Antibiotics: Drug Resistance

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2014, Official Report, columns 779-80W, on death bacterial diseases, if he will make it his policy to collect and publish data on (a) how many NHS patients have died due to antibiotic resistance and (b) which specific pathogens or drug resistant strains of infection caused such deaths.

Daniel Poulter: Although information on deaths associated with specific antibiotic resistant infections is not currently available from routine data sources, the Department is exploring options for producing better and more reliable surveillance. These options include the linking of death registration with resistance-specific surveillance datasets on healthcare associated infections. We understand that the first set of mortality data, covering methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and C.difficile infection, should be made available by Public Health England, towards the end of the year.

Dementia

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to improve international collaboration in (a) sharing research findings and best practice in care and (b) taking steps to remove stigma against those people diagnosed with dementia following the G8 summit on dementia in December; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: As part of its presidency of the G8 last year, the United Kingdom led an all-out global fight-back against dementia.
	Since the summit the Prime Minister has appointed Dr Dennis Gillings, CBE, PhD, as a World Dementia Envoy. Dr Gillings will create a World Dementia Council to stimulate innovation, development and commercialisation of life enhancing drugs, treatments and care for people with dementia, and in protection of those at risk of dementia, within a generation. The Council will be independent of Government and will have expertise in pharmaceuticals, research, investment, civic society and have sufficient global influence, reach and profile to deliver the fund. The Department will shortly be announcing the first members of the Council.
	We are also taking forward our commitment to hold a series of high-level global fora throughout 2014, in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Commission, the EU Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Disease (JPND), and civil society. Global events will begin with the UK event on dementia and social impact investment in June and will be followed by a September event in Canada, (co-hosted by Canada and France) on partnerships between academia and industry and a further event in Japan on new care and prevention models later in the year.
	And we will meet again in the United States in February 2015 with other global experts, including WHO and OECD, to review the progress that has been made on the 2013 G8 dementia summit commitments.
	Sound models exist in the UK for sharing research data, including the Medical Research Council's (MRC's) UK Dementia Research Platform, and Alzheimer's Research UK and the Alzheimer's Society's joint portal for patients and carers. With regard to international research collaboration, the MRC and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) National Director for Dementia Research are working with the OECD on the effective international sharing of dementia research data. The MRC leads for the UK on the JPND which encompasses Switzerland and Canada, 21 participating EU member states, and five other countries associated with the EU. The JPND is helping to increase the effectiveness and impact of research efforts on dementia. The JPND has published a comprehensive analysis of 171 longitudinal cohorts of value to neurodegenerative disease research, with further work to come on overcoming barriers to research. Discussions are also expected soon between the JPND and United States experts on the relationship between different research databases.

Dementia

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to reduce the use of antipsychotic medication in the management of people with dementia; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: The National Dementia and Antipsychotic Prescribing Audit (2012) showed a 52% fall in the level of prescribing of antipsychotic medication to people with dementia over the previous five years.
	The Department has commissioned the Health and Social Care Information Centre to re-run the audit and results are expected in the autumn of 2014.
	National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on the prescribing of antipsychotics to people with dementia are still current.

Dental Services: West Midlands

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the likely patient charge revenue for Birmingham and the Black Country area team from NHS dental services in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

Daniel Poulter: The Department has made no estimate of the likely patient charge revenue for Birmingham, Solihull and Black Country area team from national health service dental services in 2013-14 and 2014-15. This is a matter for NHS England.

Dental Services: West Midlands

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the management of the Birmingham and the Black Country area team in relation to the shortfall or surplus between the predicted and actual patients charges revenue for NHS dental services in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13.

Daniel Poulter: The Department will not make an assessment of the effectiveness of the management of the Birmingham, Solihull and Black Country area team in relation to the shortfall or surplus between the predicted and actual patients charges revenue for national health service dental services in 2011-12 and 2012-13. This is a matter for NHS England.

Dental Services: West Midlands

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Birmingham and the Black Country area team management of patient charge revenue from NHS dental services.

Daniel Poulter: The Department has made no assessment of the effectiveness of the Birmingham, Solihull and Black Country area team management of patient charge revenue from dental health services.
	This is a matter for NHS England.

Epilepsy

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding, information and training available for people with epilepsy and their families.

Norman Lamb: No assessment has been made of the adequacy of funding, information and training available for people with epilepsy and their families. The majority of patients with this condition can be successfully managed in primary and secondary care and the delivery of such services is a local matter.
	To support the delivery of high-quality epilepsy services, in January 2012, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline that sets out best practice in the diagnosis, treatment care and support of adults and children with this condition. The guidance states that epilepsy nurse specialists should be an integral part of the network of care of children, young people and adults with epilepsy. One of their roles is to educate, inform and support the patient and their family with specific training about the management of seizures, among other things.
	In February 2013, NICE published quality standards for both children and adults epilepsy services. Quality standards are important in setting out to patients, the public, commissioners and providers what a high-quality service should look like in a particular area of care. Epilepsy nurse specialists are a key feature of both of these.

Heart Diseases: North East

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the quality of care and treatment of patients with heart failure in the North East.

Jane Ellison: No such assessment has been made.
	The national heart failure audit April 2012—March 2013 provides a national assessment of the quality of care and treatment of patients with heart failure in England. It provides data by provider, but does not provide a regional break-down of figures.
	The audit is available at:
	www.ucl.ac.uk/nicor/audits/heartfailure/documents/annualreports/hfannual12-13.pdf

Hereditary Diseases

Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children were born with sex-linked inherited conditions in the last five years for which records are available.

Daniel Poulter: It is not possible to classify a diagnosis of 'sex-linked inherited conditions' within the ICD-10 classification, and therefore the Health and Social Care Information Centre cannot provide any data without specific conditions being identified.

Palliative Care: Children

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to update the NHS Outcomes Framework with the aim of ensuring that every child can access palliative care in the setting of their or their family's choice, 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: There are no current plans to update the NHS Outcomes Framework with an indicator in relation to choice for children accessing palliative care. However, a review of the NHS Outcomes Framework will be conducted this year, which will include a public consultation. The resulting refreshed NHS Outcomes Framework 2015-16 will be published in the autumn.
	NHS England and Monitor are working to propose a new per-patient funding system for palliative care for adults and children, to be introduced from 2015, which will provide greater clarity for commissioners on the costs of care, and allow more flexible approaches to be developed to give children and young people, and their families more choice.

Poliomyelitis

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if his Department will create a strategy to address the needs of those with post polio syndrome; and if his Department will take steps to publicise the needs of those with post polio syndrome amongst medical professionals.

Norman Lamb: Since 1 April 2013 NHS England has been responsible for determining the overall national approach to improving clinical outcomes from health care services, including for patients with long-term conditions such as post-polio syndrome (PPS). NHS England is adopting a broad strategy for delivering improvements in relation to long-term conditions, rather than pursuing a condition specific approach.
	Although there is currently no cure for PPS, there are a range of treatments and support available to help manage the symptoms and improve quality of life for patients including:
	physical therapy known as “pacing” to help recognise and manage fatigue;
	appropriate pain relief; and
	diet and exercise advice.
	Information for the public on PPS is available on the NHS choices website. More detailed information for clinicians can be found on the Map of Medicine (MOM), which can be used by doctors working in the NHS to decide on the best treatment options for patients. There are links from the NHS Choices website directly to the MOM.
	The MOM has collaborated with the British Polio Fellowship to update the 'post-polio syndrome (PPS)' care map. The care map features information on diagnosis, rehabilitation and management of PPS, and is based on high-quality guidelines, quality-assessed secondary literature, and practice-based knowledge from a multidisciplinary group including neurologists, physiotherapists, sociologists, and general practitioners.

Psoriasis

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what steps he is taking to transpose quality statements 1 and 2 of the National Institute for Care and Clinical Excellence quality standard on psoriasis into Clinical Commissioning Group outcome indicators;
	(2)  what data requirements are necessary to precipitate the development of Clinical Commissioning Group outcome indicators based on quality statements 1 and 2 of the NICE quality standard on psoriasis.

Norman Lamb: The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has advised that it has made some investigations into the information that would be required to support the indicators proposed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the psoriasis quality standard.
	The HSCIC found that there was a need for some development in the Read Codes used by clinicians to record patient findings and procedures in health and social care information technology systems across primary and secondary care; as well as guidance and clarification of definitions on the use of the existing Read Codes for recording to support the indicators proposed for the topic of psoriasis.
	It should be noted that even where the data sources meet the requirements of the topic, any inclusion of indicators in the Clinical Commissioning group outcome indicator set (CCG OIS) requires there to be sufficient cases for statistically reliable measurement across the 211 clinical commissioning groups (CCG).
	The NICE CCG OIS advisory committee is due to review potential indicators derived from the NICE psoriasis quality standard at its October meeting. If any indicators based on quality statements 1 (asessing disease severity) and 2 (assessing impact of disease) are prioritised for further development, it will then go through the process described in the recently published NICE indicator process guide, which can be found at:
	www.nice.org.uk/media/03E/31/Indicators_process_guide.pdf
	The Committee will use the prioritisation criteria (detailed in appendix B of the process guide) to inform its decision about which indicators progress through the process.
	Potential CCG outcomes indicators are considered by the NICE CCG OIS advisory committee and the indicators recommended by the Committee are then considered by NHS England for inclusion in the CCG OIS.

SCOTLAND

Social Rented Housing

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions the Government have had with the Scottish Government on the introduction of a Right to Move scheme for social tenants.

David Mundell: Neither the Secretary of State for Scotland, my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), nor I have met with the Scottish Government to discuss the introduction of a Right to Move scheme for social tenants. Under the terms of devolution, responsibility for housing, and that of social housing is the responsibility of Scottish Government Ministers. HomeSwap Direct however, does operate across the United Kingdom for those tenants wishing to mutually exchange within the social housing sphere.

Trade Unions

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether his Department is (a) undertaking or (b) plans to undertake a review of the check-off union subscription provision.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly. All staff that join do so on an assignment, loan or secondment from other Government bodies who remain responsible for all employment matters including payroll deductions for union subscriptions.

Working Hours

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what proportion of employees in his Department of what (a) civil service pay grade and (b) gender work (i) reduced hours, (ii) flexi-time, (iii) from home, (iv) a compressed working week, (v) job share, (vi) term-time only and (vii) part-time.

David Mundell: A breakdown of the relevant data requested can be found in the following table. No staff work term-time or are on a home working contract. All staff have the opportunity to work flexible working hours.
	
		
			 Percentage 
			 Grade Gender Reduced or part-time hours Compressed hours Job share 
			 SCS Male 0 0 0 
			  Female 0 0 0 
			 Grade 6/7 Male 0 0 0 
			  Female 0 0 3.3 
			 SEO Male 0 3.3 0 
			  Female 1.7 0 0 
			 HEO Male 0 0 0 
			  Female 1.7 0 0 
			 EO Male 0 0 0 
			  Female 0 0 0 
			 Admin Male 1.7 0 0 
			  Female 1.7 0 0

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Crimes of Violence

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Attorney-General what the average timescale was for the Crown Prosecution Service to provide the Metropolitan Police Service with advice on criminal charges against members of the public suspected of involvement in serious crimes in (a) 2011 to 2013 and (b) 2008 to 2010.

Oliver Heald: The following table shows, for the CPS in London, the average number of calendar days which have elapsed since the first decision was sought by the police on the date in which the last decision made was to charge. The records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) do not identify the number of cases referred to it for advice, by the alleged offence(s).
	
		
			  Average time to a decision to charge 
			 2008-10 6.7 
			 2011-13 6.2 
		
	
	The CPS in London deals with cases referred to it by both the Metropolitan Police Force and the City of London Police Force and it is not possible to further break down the figures provided without incurring a disproportionate cost.

Homicide

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Attorney-General how and on what basis the Crown Prosecution Service decides whether to prioritise the allocation of resources to its decision-making on criminal charges following conclusions of unlawful killing at an inquest or public inquiry; and whether there is additional consideration where the events in question occurred more than three years prior to the conclusion of the inquest or public inquiry.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will consider whether there is any new evidence or information within the coroner's proceedings which may have an impact upon any previous CPS decision not to bring criminal charges against an individual(s) or organisation following a conclusion of unlawful killing at an inquest or public inquiry. Where it is found that a further investigation will need to be conducted by the police, and a fresh decision made by the CPS, the police and CPS should ensure the coroner and bereaved family/next of kin are notified of the next steps to be taken.
	The allocation of CPS resources to make decisions on criminal charges will be determined by the specific facts and circumstances of the individual case. The complex casework units in each of the CPS areas will deal with more complex homicide cases; other homicide cases will be handled by senior prosecutors in the areas. The special crime and counter terrorism division in CPS headquarters also deals with a wide range of homicide cases including deaths in custody, assisted suicides, terrorist-related homicides and homicides arising from so-called 'disaster' cases. There are no additional considerations where the events in question occurred more than three years prior to the conclusion of the inquest or public inquiry.

Police: Offenders

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Attorney-General what the average timescale was for the Crown Prosecution Service to provide the Independent Police Complaints Commission with advice on criminal charges against current or former police officers suspected of involvement in serious crimes in (a) 2011 to 2013 and (b) 2008 to 2010.

Oliver Heald: The records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) do not identify the number of cases referred to it for advice by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Such information could be obtained only through a manual search of records which would incur disproportionate cost.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Anaerobic Digestion

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he plans to publish a report on the implementation of the Department's anaerobic digestion strategy and action plan for 2013-14.

Dan Rogerson: We intend to publish a further report on implementation of the Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan later this year.

Angling: Wales

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether income raised from rod licence sales in Wales will continue to be hypothecated for the protection and improvement of fisheries in Wales.

George Eustice: Freshwater fisheries is a devolved issue. Natural Resources Wales has responsibility for administering rod licences in Wales.

Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what veterinary and animal welfare qualifications and training are a criteria of becoming an inspector at the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency.

George Eustice: Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) employs veterinarians and animal health officers who both are inspectors. Veterinarians employed by AHVLA must have a veterinary degree and be members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (MRCVS). AHVLA supports these veterinarians to achieve the annual number of days continued development required to maintain their MRCVS.
	Animal health officers are not qualified veterinarians and have no requirement for any veterinary qualifications. They are trained in a variety of aspects relevant to their function and that are essential to their duties, including animal welfare, animal health, enforcement and evidence gathering. Furthermore, and in order to fulfil this function, animal health officers are appointed as Inspectors under the Animal Health Act 1981. A senior veterinarian in the organisation ensures that appointed inspectors only use the powers to act as an inspector when they are deemed competent to do so.
	AHVLA has an annual programme of training for its veterinary staff and animal health officers to ensure that they maintain and develop knowledge in their particular areas of expertise.

Ash Dieback Disease

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  when his Department will (a) complete and (b) publish its review of the Chalara management plan; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what the reasons are for the time taken for the review of the Chalara management plan; why the updated plan was not published by the Government's March 2014 target; and if he will make a statement.

Dan Rogerson: The Government will publish an updated management approach to ‘Chalara’ alongside updated management approaches to other established tree pests and diseases, and those that pose an imminent threat, in a single Tree Health Management Plan. This plan will set out the action that the Government and others are taking to protect our tree population from pests and diseases. It will be published alongside the wider Plant Biosecurity Strategy later this spring.

Biodiversity

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the individual total cost is of each of the biodiversity offsetting pilot schemes in (a) Devon, (b) Doncaster, (c) Essex, (d) Greater Norwich, (e) Nottinghamshire, (f) Warwickshire, (g) Coventry and (h) Solihull to date; and what the estimated total cost is of the schemes.

Dan Rogerson: This information is not held centrally. An evaluation of the pilots is being produced and will be published.

Dogs: Imports

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether changes in the number of puppies and dogs imported from EU member states since January 2012 are consistent with AHLVA risk assessment in 2010.

George Eustice: The quantitative risk assessment carried out prior to harmonisation with the EU pet travel rules in 2012 took into account, among other things, a number of variables including increases in the number of pets entering the UK. The risk assessment was published in 2011 and is available here:
	http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/rabies/documents/se0535-rabies-ara.pdf

Environment Protection

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the reason is for the time his Department has taken to revise and publish environmental guidance on gov.uk.

Dan Rogerson: A target has been set to simplify all of DEFRA and its agencies' guidance, including general reader and specialist guidance, by March 2015 with an expected reduction in volume of over 80%.
	Guidance reform plans have now been prepared for all environmental topics and the Environment Agency started to put revised guidance on:
	www.gov.uk
	on 31 March. 70% of simplified content for the general reader will be on gov.uk during April and the rest by June.
	DEFRA and the Government Digital Service (GDS) are working closely together to make the most effective use of resources as GDS migrates DEFRA's arm's length bodies' web content to gov.uk. The original target date for completing this migration process was March this year. This timing has been revised to July.

Environment Protection: Business

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will publish the findings of his Department's root and branch review of the environmental information required from businesses; and when he plans to publish plans for implementing changes to those requirements.

Dan Rogerson: Initial findings of DEFRA's root and branch review of the environmental information required from businesses were published on the Smarter Guidance and Data website last November. Findings for marine and carbon information obligations followed in February. These findings can be found at:
	http://guidanceanddata.defra.gov.uk
	I have placed copies in the library of the House.
	An implementation plan outlining reform measures for environmental information required from businesses is due to be published on 9 April. This implementation plan will be available on www.gov.uk. Remaining measures featuring farming-related information obligations are due to be published in June.

Flood Control

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many non-flood and coastal erosion risk management staff counted under the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management cost-heading at the Environment Agency have been redeployed to inspect flood defence assets in each of the last five months.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency has not redeployed any non-flood and coastal erosion risk management staff to inspect flood risk management assets in the last five months. The Environment Agency only uses fully trained staff to inspect assets and has trained and used 200 armed forces personnel for this purpose.

Flood Control

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many and what proportion of flood management assets have been inspected in each year since 2008-09.

Dan Rogerson: Since 2008-09 the Environment Agency has inspected all of its flood risk management assets on a risk-based programme. The highest risk assets are inspected every six months, medium risk assets every 12 to 18 months, low risk assets every 24 to 36 months and very low risk assets every 60 months. The Environment Agency currently has around 150,000 flood risk management assets. In March 2014 the Environment Agency carried out a full inspection of all flood risk management assets using military personnel.

Flood Control

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many non-flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) staff at the Environment Agency, including such non-FCERM staff funded through the FCERM budget, were redeployed for emergency flood response activities in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15 to date.

Dan Rogerson: The figures are as follows:
	(a) 2010-11—no data available.
	(b) 2011-12—no data available.
	(c) 2012-13—approximately 5,000 staff involved in flood response (this included Environment Agency Wales at that time). Of this, approximately 38% (1,900) of staff were from non-flooding and coastal erosion risk management (FCRM) functions. This does not include contractors.
	(d) 2013-14—approximately 500 staff involved in flood response. Of this, approximately 50% (2,250) of staff were from non-FCRM functions. This does not include the additional staff brought in from Natural Resources Wales, contractors, or the military.
	(e) 2014-15—data not yet available.
	More detailed information on the numbers of the non-FCRM staff involved in flood incidents which were funded by FCRM or other budgets is not recorded.

Fracking

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much income the Environment Agency expects to raise from fracking firms to pay for the regulation of the industry; and if he will make a statement.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency does not separately record the income it expects to raise from fracking firms. However, it does hold estimates of the charges it expects to raise from environmental permits and licences for the onshore oil and gas industry as a whole.
	Over the next year, with the current charging scheme, the Environment Agency estimates income of between £300,000 and £350,000. This includes fees from permit applications and annual subsistence, for mining waste, groundwater, radioactive substances and water resources permits. It does not include any site surrender fees as no sites are expected to surrender their permits over the next year. As the onshore shale gas part of the industry grows over time, we would expect the income from permitting charges to change.

Members: Correspondence

Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 7 February 2014 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton regarding Mr J Rossi-Stephenson;
	(2)  when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 7 February 2014 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr J Rossi-Stephenson;
	(3)  when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 7 February 2014 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regards to Mr J Rossi-Stephenson.

Dan Rogerson: A response to right hon. Member's letter of 7 February 2014, with regard to Mr J Rossi-Stephenson, was sent on the 3 April 2014.
	Copies of the response will be made available in the House Library.
	Letter from Owen Paterson, dated 3 April 2014
	Thank you for your letter of 7 February on behalf of your constituent, Mr J Rossi-Stephenson of 27 Woodland Road, Gorton, Manchester, who is concerned about Environment Agency cuts and the impact this would have on the organisation's future ability to effectively carry out its responsibilities. I am sorry for the delay in replying.
	I appreciate Mr Rossi-Stephenson's concerns. Across Government we are continuing to have to make some tough choices in relation to budgets to help reduce the deficit and deliver savings. The Environment Agency is playing its part in this and is making its own choices about how best to use its resources.
	Following the 2013 Spending Round, budget pressures mean that the. Environment Agency needs to ensure it has an affordable business and is structured so that it has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best environmental outcomes. The Environment Agency will firstly look to achieve efficiencies across the business as a whole through new ways of working to minimise the impacts on front line delivery. For instance, it is removing its regional tier so that it only has national and area tiers. Simplifying structures in this way will help maximise investment in delivery. It will simplify business processes that will improve customer service and maintain strong engagement with a local presence in communities.
	The Environment Agency is also working with Natural England on implementing the conclusions of the Triennial Review, looking at, how both organisations can work together to deliver efficient and effective services to customers. The Environment Agency will continue to maximise benefits for every pound of funding. For example, by the end of March, it will have reduced the administrative budget by 33% compared to 2010/11 figures. Throughout the ongoing reorganisation, pollution prevention will remain a high priority and the additional £5 million funding for waste crime announced in the Budget reflects the commitment to tackling these important issues.
	As the Environment Agency moves out of incident mode following the recent floods, it will be necessary to re-focus efforts and revise planning assumptions to continue to bring the Environment Agency costs in line with 2014/15 and 2015/16 budgets, (in light of recent announcements of additional money for the Environment Agency). Decisions will need to be made in response to the additional £130 million announced on 6 February for flood risk management, the further £140 million announced in the Budget to support the repair and maintenance of vital flood and coastal defences as well as the additional £5 million to tackle waste crime.
	While the Environment Agency remains in incident mode and following the announcements of additional money, it is too early to' confirm the full re-organisational impacts on staff at this stage. The numbers of job losses quoted in the press were, part of the Environment Agency's initial internal scenario planning work back in November 2013, but did not reflect the settled position. The current priority for the Environment Agency is incident response. Paul Leinster.
	The Environment Agency Chief Executive, has assured me that any reductions in posts will not affect the Environment Agency's resilience and ability to respond to flooding incidents.
	The Environment Agency will be reviewing the timetable for the change programme in light of the extra funding announced for flood risk management and waste crime. Other than the approximately 150 staff reductions following the Voluntary Early Release scheme initiated in January and the move to a national/area delivery model, no final decisions have been nor will be made about future workforce reductions or structures until the current flooding subsides.
	I hope your constituent finds this information useful.

Nurseries

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 35W on nurseries, whether his Department claims tax relief against the cost of such workplace nurseries.

Dan Rogerson: DEFRA does not claim tax relief against the cost of running workplace nurseries as it does not pay corporation tax.

Packaging

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the marine environment of the exemption of biodegradable plastic bags and paper bags from his single-use plastic bag charging policy.

Dan Rogerson: Plastic, mainly plastic bags and bottles, is estimated to account for more than 70% of the total number of marine debris in European seas. The charge will focus on plastic bags as this is a targeted, proportionate approach to the problem of carrier bag distribution and littering.
	Paper bags make up less than 0.1% of carrier bags distributed in the UK by the seven major supermarket retailers. Overall, paper bags make up a very small proportion of total carrier bag numbers, the vast majority of which are single-use plastic bags.
	Plastic carrier bags take the longest to degrade in the natural environment, therefore decomposition in the marine environment will be one of the considerations when setting a standard for a biodegradable plastic bag exempt from the charge.

Packaging

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the carbon emissions resulting from the production, transport and disposal or recycling of paper bags.

Dan Rogerson: The calculation of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from paper bags is available in the 2011 research report “Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags”, which was commissioned and funded by the Environment Agency. This forms part of the evidence base for the impact assessment that will be available in due course. I have placed a copy of the report in the Library of the House.

Plastic Bags

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the carbon emissions resulting from the production, transport and disposal or recycling of currently available biodegradable plastic bags.

Dan Rogerson: The calculation of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from bags currently labelled as biodegradable or compostable is available in the 2011 research report “Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags”, which was commissioned and funded by the Environment Agency. This reviewed the bags available in 2006. I have placed a copy of the report in the Library of the House.

Plastic Bags

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what criteria a biodegradable plastic bag will need to fulfil for exemption from his single use plastic bag charging policy.

Dan Rogerson: We intend to exempt biodegradable bags that meet certain standards from the charge to give consumers an alternative to using single-use plastic bags when they do not take a reusable bag with them. The standards will be worked up in consultation with industry. They are likely to cover how the bag should behave during disposal or recycling (for example, having a short degradation time period), resource use, energy consumption during production and other elements across their lifecycle.

Plastic Bags

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total number of projects was involved in Lot 1, Phase 1, of his Department's Biodegradable Plastic Carrier Bags Solutions through Innovation Research Call; and how many of those projects met each of the five functions and characteristics outlined in the research call.

Dan Rogerson: DEFRA received six bids for Lot 1, Phase 1 of this research call.
	Two bids met the requirements outlined in the research call and are being funded by DEFRA.

Plastic Bags

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many projects were taken forward from Phase 1 of his Department's Biodegradable Plastic Carrier Bags Solutions through Innovation Research Call feasibility studies which concluded on 31 March 2014 in (a) Lot 1 and (b) Lot 2.

Dan Rogerson: DEFRA has funded and taken forward two feasibility study projects in Lot 1 and two feasibility study projects in Lot 2 of this research call.

Plastic Bags

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total number of projects involved was in Lot 2, Phase 1 of his Department's Biodegradable Plastic Carrier Bags Solutions through Innovation Research Call; and how many of those projects addressed the technical and economic issues outlined in the research call.

Dan Rogerson: DEFRA received two bids for Lot 2, Phase 1 of this research call.
	Both bids addressed the technical and economic issues outlined in the research call and are being funded by DEFRA.

Poultry

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will review the minimum welfare requirements for ducks raised in captivity.

George Eustice: The welfare of ducks is provided for in the general provisions of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007. We have no plans to review these requirements. DEFRA also has a statutory duck welfare code, which encourages high standards of husbandry.
	DEFRA, the RSPCA, academics and the duck industry have done a good deal of work over the last few years looking at how water could be provided to ducks in a commercial setting. DEFRA contributed to the RSPCA's 'Higher Duck Welfare Programme' and the standards in the RSPCA's Freedom Foods scheme and the industry's own Duck Assurance Scheme reflect the latest research. As a result of this collaborative approach, duck welfare standards have been raised.

Rabbits

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will issue updated advice on the care of pets to address the issues of the welfare and abandonment of domestic rabbits.

George Eustice: The poor welfare and abandonment of any animal is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 or six months' imprisonment or both. The Government have no plans to issue specific advice on keeping pet rabbits but such advice is available from animal welfare organisations and some pet shops.

Water Companies

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of how the recommendations of the HM Treasury report entitled “Smoothing Investment Cycles in the Water Sector”, published in July 2012, have affected the water sector.

Dan Rogerson: Ofwat worked closely with HM Treasury and Infrastructure UK on the “Smoothing Investment Cycles in the Water Sector” report. In response to the recommendations of that report, Ofwat has continued to work with water companies and Infrastructure UK on action to address the up and down ‘cyclical investment’ that has affected the sector for many years.
	This change in approach has had tangible outcomes. For example, in responding to incentives that Ofwat introduced in its methodology for the price review, water companies have stated in their business plans (December 2013) that they are bringing forward around £440 million of investment into 2014-15 to smooth the investment profile. This investment will improve the delivery of service outcomes to customers, support the supply chain and enable efficient delivery.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Azelle Rodney Inquiry

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the statement of 5 July 2013, Official Report, column 74WS, on the Azelle Rodney Inquiry, and with reference to the report of the Azelle Rodney Public Inquiry, what assessment she has made of the responses of the Metropolitan Police Service and the Independent Police Complaints Commission to the Inquiry's findings and recommendations; and if she will make a statement.

Damian Green: The recommendations made in the Azelle Rodney Inquiry report have been considered fully by the Metropolitan Police Service and the IPCC and, as appropriate, are being taken forward by each organisation.

Hillsborough Stadium

Steve Rotheram: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will digitise all evidence relating to Hillsborough which is being reviewed by the IPCC and Operation Resolve investigations; and if she will make it her policy to publish such evidence electronically upon completion of both investigations.

Damian Green: The IPCC and Operation Resolve are responsible for the publication of the findings of their investigations. Decisions on whether to publish will be made once the investigations are complete.

Human Trafficking

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 20 March 2014, Official Report, column 685W, on human trafficking, whether she plans for the review of the National Referral Mechanism to be completed before committee stage of the Modern Slavery Bill.

Karen Bradley: An announcement on the review of the National Referral Mechanism will be made shortly.

Human Trafficking: Victim Support Schemes

John Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the nationality and gender was of each suspected victim of trafficking referred to the Trafficking Victim Support Scheme operated by the Salvation Army in March 2014; which agency referred each person to that scheme; in which town the shelter to which those people were placed for the relevant period was; and what contact is had with each such victim to ensure their safety after they exit the scheme.

Karen Bradley: In March 2014, there were 126 referrals to the Government-funded support service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales administered by the Salvation Army. In the interests of victim safety only the region in which the victim was encountered is provided, and not which town they were placed in. Once an individual receives a Conclusive Grounds decision they will be given tailored move-on support to safely return home or integrate in the UK. Once they exit the service, no formal mechanisms exist to maintain contact.

Riot Control Weapons

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will place in the Library a copy of the report entitled “The medical implications of vehicle-mounted water cannon with special reference to the Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000 (WaWe 9) system”, published by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in 2013.

Damian Green: The report will be placed in the Library when the Home Secretary announces her decision on whether to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales.

Riot Control Weapons

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  if he will place in the Library a copy of the report, “The medical implications of vehicle-mounted water cannon with special reference to the Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000 (WaWe 9) system”, published by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in 2013;
	(2)  what information her Department holds on how many injuries have been associated with the use of water cannon in Northern Ireland;
	(3)  what steps she plans to take to ensure that the temperature of water within a water cannon tank is retained at five degrees Celsius;
	(4)  how many police officers in England are trained to use water cannon;
	(5)  what assessment she has made of the efficacy of the existing tactics in place for use of water cannon in Northern Ireland;
	(6)  if she will review the appropriateness of water cannon tactics used in Northern Ireland ahead of their possible use in London;
	(7)  what estimate she has made of the cost of updating awareness training for public order-trained staff operating alongside water cannon;
	(8)  if she will review the strategic policing requirement of water cannon based on planning assumptions around three spontaneous sets of disorder ahead of their deployment in London.

Damian Green: The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), has now received the request to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales. She is considering this request and will announce her decision in due course and lay the relevant information in the House Library.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

FGM and Forced Marriage

Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps she is taking to tackle female genital mutilation and early and forced marriage worldwide.

Justine Greening: FGM is violence against women and girls. The UK has made the largest donor commitment ever to help end FGM, with a flagship programme of £35 million in at least 17 countries.
	The Prime Minister will host a summit in July which will step up global efforts to end both FGM and child early and forced marriage within a generation.

Garment Industry: Bangladesh

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of international efforts to improve levels of safety and conditions of work in Bangladesh’s garment industry.

Alan Duncan: I spent most of last week in Bangladesh, assessing the progress that has been made one year on from the tragedy of Rana Plaza. Steps have been taken to improve working conditions in the garment sector, including through factory inspections and strengthening the labour inspection regime. The UK's support is focused on all areas where action is needed: improving building safety and working conditions, empowering workers and urging buyers to take responsibility for their supply chains.

Climate Change: IPCC Report

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of conclusions of the recent UN IPCC report on the effects of climate change on developing countries.

Lynne Featherstone: The Government welcome the IPCC report. Climate change poses very serious consequences to human health, global food security, and can slow economic growth. Its impacts will be an extra burden for those living in poverty, and make it harder to reduce poverty in developing countries.

Syria

Glyn Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in Syria.

Justine Greening: The UN estimates that 9.3 million people are in dire need of humanitarian aid within Syria. At least 6.5 million people in Syria have been forced to flee their homes to other areas of the country and there are now over 2.6 million refugees in the region.

Sri Lankan Tamils: Poverty

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment she has made of the levels of poverty among Tamils living in Sri Lanka.

Alan Duncan: Sri Lanka has met millennium development goal No. 1 which calls for the halving of extreme poverty, and is on track to meet most other MDGs. Poverty remains in areas of northern and eastern Sri Lanka where large numbers of Tamils live. We do not have a breakdown by ethnic group.

Education: Children with Disabilities

David Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking to ensure that all the education programmes it funds are inclusive of children with disabilities; and what monitoring her Department undertakes to ensure that all such programmes include accessible materials for use by children with disabilities.

Lynne Featherstone: The UK is committed to ensuring all children, with a focus on the most marginalised and those with disabilities have access to education institutions and complete a full cycle of quality education. We are working with partners, such as UNICEF and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, to improve data for monitoring purposes.

Developing Countries: Females

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what her objectives are for the summit on violence against women and girls in humanitarian emergencies.

Justine Greening: Last November I convened a Call to Action in relation to keeping women and girls safe in humanitarian emergencies. The event brought together both UN agencies and donors, and has already resulted in improved approaches in the Philippines and Syria. I pledged £21.6 million further funding to ensure this work delivered tangible outcomes for women and girls including £4 million to ensure survivors of sexual violence receive comprehensive support services. The US will host a follow-up event in September and this summer the Foreign Secretary will host a summit on his Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, which aims to tackle the culture of impunity for sexual violence committed in conflict.

Nigeria

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what education projects her Department is supporting in Nigeria.

Lynne Featherstone: DFID supports five education projects in Nigeria Education Sector Support Programme, Girls' Education Programme, Teacher Development Programme, Developing Effective Private Education, and Education Data, Research and Evaluation through which an additional 800,000 children will access better quality schools by 2015.
	DFID also supports two further projects through the global Girls' Education Challenge (Discovery Girls and Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises), through which 48,000 marginalised girls will be supported to access better schools.

Palestinians

Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress her Department has made on its programmes in Palestine.

Alan Duncan: The UK's bilateral programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is helping to build Palestinian institutions, promote economic growth and support the most vulnerable Palestinians. Absent meaningful action from Israel to ease movement and access restrictions, however, our progress will always be limited.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Bahrain

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make representations to the Bahraini Government calling for the release of Hussain Hubail on health grounds.

Hugh Robertson: We are aware of the case of Hussain Hubail. We understand he was detained in connection with charges related to protests on 14 August last year and that the verdict for his case is due to be issued later this month. We expect the Government of Bahrain to meet all their human rights obligations, and to ensure that all detainees have access to appropriate medical care.

Bahrain

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on (a) the trial in Bahrain of Mohammed Abdulla Al-Tajer and (b) his treatment in custody.

Hugh Robertson: We are aware of the case of Mohammad Al-Tajer. We understand he spent four months in detention in 2011 before his case was moved from the National State Safety Court to the civilian courts, as recommended by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, where he was sentenced to one month in prison. We understand that he appealed the verdict and was acquitted by the High Appeal Civilian court. We continue to encourage the Government of Bahrain to meet all their human rights obligations, and adhere to international standards.

Central African Republic

Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to encourage his counterparts in other EU member states to support and commit resources to the EUFOR RCA mission in the Central African Republic.

Mark Simmonds: I welcome the launch of the EU Force (EUFOR) military operation in the Central African Republic (CAR) on 2 April. EUFOR will help the African-led International Support Mission to CAR (MISCA) and French (Sangaris) forces to provide security in Bangui until a hand-over to MISCA or a possible UN Peacekeeping Operation can take place. I discussed the importance of the mission with ministerial colleagues in the margins of the EU-Africa Summit in Brussels on 1-2 April. The UK has played a strong role in the planning for EUFOR, and is discussing the possibility of providing airlifts to help EUFOR's deployment. Ongoing reports of violence in CAR demonstrate the importance of this mission.

Christianity

Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action the Government are recommending on the UN Human Rights Council to tackle the persecution of Christians around the world.

William Hague: We welcomed the recent consensus adoption at the Human Rights Council of both the European Union's regular resolution on ‘freedom of religion or belief’ and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference's resolution on ‘religious intolerance'. This gives the international community a valuable starting point on which to base discussions on how best to implement these resolutions in practice.
	The Senior Minister of State, my noble Friend the right hon. Baroness Warsi, is leading an international initiative to build up greater political support for practical measures to combat religious intolerance and promote the social and economic benefits of religious pluralism.

Greece

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with his Greek counterpart on whether protests will be permitted to coincide with the upcoming EU meeting.

David Lidington: I have not raised this specific issue with my Greek counterpart. Authorities in Greece have the constitutional right to place restrictive or preventative measures on outdoor demonstrations. No such restrictions were in place on 4 and 5 April 2014, the dates on which the informal meeting of EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Athens.

Italy

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with his Italian counterpart on the status of foreign lecturers in Italian universities.

David Lidington: The discrimination faced by UK and foreign national lecturers in Italy is unacceptable and illegal. The Secretary of State raised the 'lettori' with the then Italian Foreign Minister, Emma Bonino, on 25 October 2013. I met the then Italian Europe Minister, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, on 19 November 2013, and stressed the importance of progress. I also met the Chairman of the Association of Foreign Lecturers in Italy (ALLSI), David Petrie, on 28 November 2013, and assured him of the Government's commitment to keep up the pressure on the Italian authorities. I raised the issue with Italian Deputy Foreign Minister, Marta Dassu, when I met her on 15 January. Most recently, the Minister for Universities and Science, has written to the new Italian Minister for Education, Research and Universities, Stefania Giannini, and underlined the importance of finding a solution.

Japan

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will instruct UK diplomats resident in Japan to raise the human rights case of Mr Iwao Hakamda with the Japanese authorities.

Hugo Swire: British Ministers have made clear to their Japanese counterparts on numerous occasions the UK's hope that Japan will move to abolish the death penalty. This is in line with UK policy towards all countries which continue to use the death penalty. Most recently, on 12 December 2013, EU ambassadors in Tokyo wrote a joint letter to the Japanese Foreign Minister on , expressing their concern at executions which took place the same day, and deploring the eight executions authorised by the Minister of Justice since the beginning of that year.
	The FCO part-funded a study by the NGO Death Penalty Project in 2013, the conclusions of which argue that aspects of Japan's use of the death penalty—including the sentencing and detention of Mr Hakamada—amount to breaches of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The British embassy in Tokyo has disseminated this report widely in Japan, including to all Members of the Diet, and we continue to raise the points in the report with the Japanese authorities. The British embassy in Tokyo will continue to follow closely the case of Mr Hakamada, and will work with like-minded partners to raise its profile. The embassy and the FCO put out messages on social media about the case on 28 March following his release for retrial.

Japan

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the effect of Japan's lifting of its ban on arms exports on the UK.

Hugo Swire: The Japanese Government's new guidelines on arms exports have shifted the country's policy on arms exports from a de facto ban with occasional exceptions, to a set of principles governing the transfer overseas of defence equipment. This move is in line with Japan's National Security Strategy, published last year, and reflects the commitment of the Japanese Government to play a more active role in international peace and security, a commitment which the Secretary of State welcomed when he visited Tokyo in October 2013.
	The new principles which the Japanese Government have published make clear that Japan will implement its new export control regime in line with international treaty obligations, including the arms trade treaty, and UN Security Council resolutions. Applications will be subject to strict examination and transparency, and controls will be applied concerning extra-purpose use and third-party transfer.
	For the UK, the new export control principles may give rise to further opportunities for British defence companies to engage in co-development and joint production of defence equipment with Japanese partners. This builds on the UK-Japan Defence Equipment Cooperation Framework agreement signed by the Foreign Secretary with his Japanese counterpart in July 2013.

Russia

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what sanctions the UK has imposed on Russia since Russian troops entered Crimea.

David Lidington: The EU Foreign Affairs Council imposed asset freezes and visa bans on 33 named individuals, for actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. The UK has also frozen military co-operation with Russia, refused export licence requests, which may be used by the Russian military, and has postponed a number of planned Ministerial Summits. Along with other G7 members, the UK has withdrawn participation in the planned G8 Summit in Sochi in June, and will instead take part in a G7 meeting in Brussels.

Russia

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with his Chinese counterpart on Russia's actions in Crimea.

David Lidington: In addition to ongoing dialogue at official level, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has discussed it with State Councillor Yang, and the Prime Minister has raised the situation in Ukraine with President Xi Jinping and State Councillor Yang Jiechi.

Russia

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to ensure that Russia withdraws all of its forces from the Ukrainian border.

David Lidington: We are concerned by Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. We are clear that Russia has no legal basis or justification to enter Ukrainian territory and call on Russia to withdraw.

Sri Lanka

Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what advice his Department has given to the Commonwealth (a) Secretariat and (b) Chairperson on the attendance of President Rajapaksa at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

William Hague: Invitations to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are issued by the Commonwealth Games Association of each participating nation.
	The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), discussed attendance at the Commonwealth Games and other games related matters during his meeting with the Commonwealth Secretary-General on 19 March.

Syria

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he plans to take to ensure women's equal and meaningful participation in the Syrian peace process.

Hugh Robertson: It is vital that Syrian women are able to participate fully in decisions about the future of their country. We continue to raise international awareness of this important issue and the Foreign Secretary has written to the UN Secretary General, the Joint Special Envoy, and a number of Foreign Ministers recommending that Syrian women should be able to participate fully in the peace process. We are providing £200,000 of support to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to strengthen the capacity of Syrian women's groups to engage in the transition process. The Foreign Secretary was pleased to meet representatives from the Syrian Women's Initiative for Peace and Democracy during Geneva II, and the UK intends to offer further practical support in close co-ordination with UN Women and donors.

Uganda

Naomi Long: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he or officials in his Department have had with the High Commissioner of Uganda regarding Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act.

Mark Simmonds: We have consistently raised our concerns about the Anti-Homosexuality Act with the Ugandan Government at all levels. I most recently discussed the legislation with the Ugandan high commissioner to the UK on 18 March.

Ukraine

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he next plans to meet the Ukranian Foreign Minister; and if he will make a statement.

David Lidington: The Secretary of State is in regular contact with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andriy Deshchytsia. He met him most recently on 31 March, in the margins of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Foreign Ministers' meeting. The Government will continue to maintain regular contact with the Government of Ukraine at all levels, to support their efforts to deal with the serious economic, political and security challenges that they are facing.

Ukraine

Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 
	(1)  what recent assessment he has made of the likelihood of a further Russian military incursion into eastern Ukraine;
	(2)  what recent assessment he has made of the security situation in Ukraine.

William Hague: I refer my hon. Friend to the statement I made to the House on 8 April 2014, Official Report, column 101. We are gravely concerned about the situation in Crimea and in the east of Ukraine where armed groups have seized government buildings in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lugansk. There can be no justification for this action, which bears all the hallmarks of a Russian strategy to destabilise Ukraine. Russia should be clear that the deliberate escalation of this crisis will bring serious political and economic consequences.

United Arab Emirates

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will investigate reports that Osama Hussain Al-Najjar has been tortured while held in custody in the UAE.

Hugh Robertson: We are aware of these reports, and will continue to monitor reporting of Osama Hussain Al-Najjar's case.

United Arab Emirates

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he or officials of his Department last raised the issue of torture of prisoners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the government of UAE.

Hugh Robertson: The Government unreservedly condemn the use of torture and urges all countries to comply with international law. Our close relationship with the UAE allows us to discuss sensitive issues, including human rights concerns, at every level.

USA

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what support the First Minister of Scotland has received from (a) the British embassy in Washington and (b) consular offices in the US ahead of his upcoming visit to that country.

David Lidington: The British embassy in Washington, and the New York consulate, have provided support for the visit this week of the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, to the US. The consul general in New York hosted a lunch at his residence on 7 April, in association with Scottish Development International (SDI), for the First Minister and 17 Scottish companies from the First Minister's accompanying trade mission, to which key business figures were invited. The British embassy in Washington worked with the New York consulate to organise port courtesies for the First Minister, upon arrival in New York, to allow the Scottish Affairs Office (based in the British embassy Washington) to greet the First Minister at the airport and expedite customs and immigration procedures.

Western Sahara

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is on human rights monitoring in Western Sahara.

Hugh Robertson: The British Government have regular dialogue with the Moroccan authorities, including on Western Sahara. We encourage concrete progress towards improving human rights in Western Sahara, including effective human rights monitoring. I discussed this most recently during my visit to Rabat in March.

Western Sahara

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the statement of the UN Secretary General in his report S/2013/220 published in April 2013 on the human rights situation in Western Sahara; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the conclusions of the 2013 World Report by Human Rights Watch regarding Morocco's 2011 constitution and human rights.

Hugh Robertson: We read the 2013 World Report from Human Rights Watch and the 2013 United Nations Secretary-General's annual report with interest. We regularly discuss with Morocco the importance of full respect for human rights in Western Sahara, including in discussions at the UN Security Council, and during my visit to Rabat in March. However, we also welcome the facilitation by the Government of Morocco of access to the Territory for United Nations special procedures mandate holders. I recently made a statement warmly welcoming the Government of Morocco's announcement that the process to ratify the OPCAT will be completed imminently. I also welcomed Morocco's new commitments to investigate complaints of human rights violations made to the National Council of Human Rights within a fixed three month deadline, and the definitive ending of military tribunal trials for civilians.

EDUCATION

Child Minding

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the number of childminder agencies that will be established in September (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

Elizabeth Truss: The childminder agency legislation is enabling. Childminder agencies will be independent of government, and it will be for organisations themselves to decide if and when to enter this market. We have therefore not estimated the number of childminder agencies that will successfully register with Ofsted in September 2014 or 2015.

Children: Day Care

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department last visited a private, voluntary or independent sector childcare setting in an official capacity.

Elizabeth Truss: Records show that the most recent visits undertaken to PVI provision by Ministers in the Department for Education are as follows.
	I visited Little Rainbows Day Nursery on 20 March 2014. The Secretary of State for Education, visited Norwood Kennedy Leigh Family Centre in November 2013.
	It should be noted that we do not keep records of the specific business model of every nursery or childcare setting Minister’s visit. Therefore, it is possible that other visits have been undertaken, details of which are not held centrally.

Children: Day Care

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much his Department has spent on independent survey packs sent from IPSOS Mori and Ecorys to childminders since the childminder agency pilot began; how many such packs have been sent out to (a) childminders and (b) parents; in which areas have such packs been sent out; how many surveys have been returned by (i) childminders and (ii) parents to date; and what results have been received to date on the likelihood of (A) childminders and (B) parents using a childminder agency.

Elizabeth Truss: The budget for the six month long evaluation of the child minder agency (CMA) trials, including surveys, is £115,445 exclusive of VAT. The research as a whole is intended to gather findings from the trials to inform policy development and registration requirements for CMAs, which will be set out in future regulations.

Children: Day Care

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of average changes to childcare costs following the establishment of childminder agencies.

Elizabeth Truss: We are putting in place legislation to enable organisations to register as childminder agencies (CMAs) in order to increase the number of childminders available and improve choice and affordability for parents, as part of reforms to increase the supply of childcare places.

Children: Day Care

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education with reference to early education and childcare, what estimate he has made of the number of new childcare providers which will enter the market as a result of changes made to regulations under section 7 of the Childcare Act 2006 in section 3.4 of the Consultation on proposed changes to the role of the local authority.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education has not made an estimate of the number of new childcare providers who may choose to enter the childcare market as a result of these reforms.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Agriculture: Subsidies

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 12 March 2014, Official Report, columns 595-6W, on public sector: food, whether the Manufacturing Advisory Service is unable to give grant aid to the farming industry due to state aid restrictions relating to existing common agricultural policy payments.

Michael Fallon: The criteria for support from the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) do not include any reference to state aid restrictions related to common agricultural policy payments. MAS delivers support to manufacturers, and is able to support land based enterprises such as farmers, which have formally diversified their agricultural business from their product manufacturing activities.

Apprentices

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people who are (a) under 18, (b) 18 to 21 and (c) 22 or over have completed an apprenticeship in each year since 2008.

Matthew Hancock: Information on the number of apprenticeship achievements by age are published in a supplementary table to the Statistical First Release:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships--2
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296345/apprenticeship-achievements-by-geography-learner-demographics-and-sector-subject-area.xlsm

Bananas

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to his answer of 12 March 2014, Official Report, column 220W, on bananas, if he will hold discussions with the Competition and Markets Authority on the effect of supermarket pricing policies on banana farmers.

Jennifer Willott: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills maintains regular dialogue with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). If the CMA receives evidence that anti-competitive practices are having an adverse effect on the supply chain for bananas, the Department would consider discussing, as part of its ongoing communications with the CMA, the issues arising.

Banks

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what correspondence there was between (a) the bank acting as financial adviser to the Government and (b) banks acting as bookrunners, co-ordinators and lead managers (i) with and (ii) on priority investors; and if he will publish any relevant correspondence.

Michael Fallon: The Department has not seen and does not hold copies of any correspondence between Lazard or the Syndicate of banks selling Royal Mail shares and the priority investors.

Exports: Turkey

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the prospects for UK exporters to Turkey; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon: In October 2013, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office conducted an assessment to identify the prospects for UK export expansion to Turkey. The report concluded that UK exports to Turkey are projected to increase from £4.9 billion in 2011 to £9 billion in 2020. The report also identified which sectors provided the greatest opportunities and are most critical to growing UK exports to Turkey. UK Trade & Investment is leading for Government in actively helping UK business to maximise opportunities.

Gender

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the (a) level of government funding for and (b) effect of research undertaken to date into gender differences in brain development and functioning.

David Willetts: The Government have not made an assessment of the level of funding or effect of research in this area.

Grant Thornton

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many representations he has received relating to concerns over Grant Thornton's handling of insolvency or bankruptcy cases since 2010.

Jennifer Willott: Prior to the introduction of the Insolvency Service's Complaints Gateway in June 2013 no central record was maintained of numbers of complaints made against individual firms.
	Since June 2013 there have been 794 complaints received via the Complaints Gateway, of which 70 related to recorded complaints about insolvency practitioners from Grant Thornton in respect to formal insolvency procedures.

Higher Education: Part-time Education

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people have applied for part-time higher education courses each year since 2004.

David Willetts: Statistics are not available on applicants to part-time higher education courses as there is no centralised application service for part-time study. However, statistics on entrants to part-time courses at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and have been provided back to the academic year 2004/05 in the table.
	Information on enrolments at UK HEIs in the academic year 2013/14 will become available from HESA in January 2015.
	
		
			 Entrants1 part-time courses by level of study, academic years 2004/05 to 2012/13, UK Higher Education Institutions 
			  2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 
			 Postgraduate part-time 108,920 113,955 116,210 116,320 128,945 132,745 127,925 109,535 102,190 
			 Undergraduate part time 317,785 336,415 341,030 331,950 344,475 335,050 301,490 278,575 199,905 
			 Total part-time 426,710 450,370 457,245 448,275 473,420 467,795 429,415 388,115 302,095 
			 1 Entrants refer to those students entering their first year of study. Note: Includes entrants from all domiciles (UK, EU and other overseas countries). Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency

Insolvency

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will publish a summary of the responses to the consultation on strengthening the regulatory regime and fee structure for insolvency practitioners which closed on 28 March 2014.

Jennifer Willott: We plan to publish the responses received (unless they may be deemed confidential within the Freedom of Information Act's Code of Practice for authorities) alongside the Government's response to the views received.

Insolvency

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when Ministers in his Department met officials from the Insolvency Service to discuss insolvency practitioner (a) fees and (b) partial licences in the last 12 months.

Jennifer Willott: Ministers in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills meet with officials from the Insolvency Service on a regular basis to discuss a wide variety of insolvency issues.

Land Registry

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he intends to respond to the consultation on the introduction of a Land Registry service delivery company.

Michael Fallon: We are aiming to publish the Government response within 12 weeks of the consultation closing, in line with the consultation principles.

Land Registry

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many responses he has received to the consultation on the introduction of a Land Registry service delivery company; and how many of those were in favour of the proposals.

Michael Fallon: We are currently considering all consultation responses. The Government response to the consultation will set out the main issues raised by respondents and how the Government intend to address these issues.

Land Registry

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether trade unions will be consulted before a final decision on the future status of the Land Registry is made.

Michael Fallon: The Government consultation on the introduction of a Land Registry service delivery company was sent to trade unions. Their responses, together with all other responses, will be considered as part of the decision making process.
	Land Registry management will engage with their trade unions on changes that may affect staff as a result of the consultation.

Land Registry

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) conveyancers and (b) small and medium-sized enterprises of a change in the Land Registry's trading status to a Government Owned Company and implementation of the Land Registry plans for e-Mandation and self-service.

Michael Fallon: The proposals in the consultation on the introduction of a Land Registry service delivery company are being considered against the option of remaining as is, and no decisions will be taken until all responses have been considered. As part of considering the consultation responses Government will be considering potential effects on interested parties (including conveyancers and small and medium-sized enterprises).
	The way in which some Land Registry services are delivered will likely change as a result of the implementation of the Business Strategy. Land Registry will engage with customers as and when it introduces new services.

Local Growth Fund

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the total value is of all bids received from Local Enterprise Partnerships for the Local Growth Fund to date.

Michael Fallon: All 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships submitted their Strategic Economic Plans to Government on 31 March. All proposals are currently being reviewed and assessed against the published criteria and it is too early to know the total call on the fund. However from an initial review it is clear that the Local Growth Fund is significantly over-subscribed, with bids totalling approximately three or four times the amount available.

Local Growth Fund

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what criteria are used to assess bids from local enterprise partnerships for the Local Growth Fund.

Michael Fallon: The criteria the Government will be using to assess Strategic Economic Plans and bids for the Local Growth Fund were published in July 2013. There are three key criteria: ambition and rationale, value for money and delivery and risk. The most successful LEPs will have strong, deliverable Strategic Economic Plans, evidenced by strong partnership working; robust arrangements for accountability; and effective collaboration across Local Enterprise Partnership geography. These LEPs will earn a greater share of the Local Growth Fund.

Reshore UK

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many officials currently work in the Government's Reshore UK service; how many such officials were previously employed in (a) the Manufacturing Advisory Service and (b) other Government Departments or agencies; and where the staff of the Reshore UK service are currently located.

Michael Fallon: Reshore UK brings together and joins-up existing resources and activities of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) globally, the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) in England and partner bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to promote the UK as the location of choice for businesses considering reshoring; it is not an employer in its own right.

Plastic Bags

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the Government's policy is on the European Commission's proposed amendments to Article 4 of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, relating to reducing consumption of lightweight, less frequently re-used plastic bags with a thickness below 50 microns.

Michael Fallon: The UK Government welcome the flexibility the European Commission proposal offers. We will seek to limit the derogation to the single market as far as possible to what is necessary to allow measures to be taken on lightweight carrier bags.

Public Houses

Aidan Burley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what timetable he has adopted for the introduction of a Statutory Code and Adjudicator in the public house sector.

Jennifer Willott: Between April and June 2013 the Government consulted on proposals to establish a statutory Code of Practice and an independent Adjudicator, which are aimed at supporting pub tenants. The Government received over 1,100 written responses to the consultation on pub companies and their tenants and over seven thousand responses to the online survey conducted in parallel. We are considering the evidence carefully, to ensure that intervention is both proportionate and targeted, and we intend to publish a Government Response to the consultation as soon as we can.

Regional Growth Fund

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much in Regional Growth Fund money is currently held by intermediaries; and how much such money has been allocated (a) in each bidding round, (b) to each intermediary and (c) in each region.

Michael Fallon: From the four Regional Growth Fund (RGF) bidding rounds, £1.5 billion has been allocated to RGF programmes from which grants are made to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs.)
	Of this, £452 million was allocated to 13 endowment programmes in rounds 1 and 2 that received the full payment of their RGF grant upfront. These programmes have since invested £144 million to date in individual projects, and of the remaining £308 million held by such endowment programmes, a further £154 million is already committed to specific SME projects.
	Non-endowment programmes are funded a quarter in advance on evidence of credible pipeline projects. These programmes have spent £172 million with a further £151 million of RGF paid to them in the last financial quarter under the expectation it would be spent this quarter. The money held by these programmes is not causing any delay to individual projects as businesses claim the money according to their business needs. A table of RGF funding allocated to intermediaries by each bidding round and region will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

Riot Control Weapons: Turkey

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when the standard individual export licence granted in May 2011 to permit tear gas ammunition to be exported to Turkey expired.

Michael Fallon: The licence expired on 4 May 2012. Temporary export licences are issued for a period of 12 months, with a condition that the goods are returned to the UK within the validity of the licence. The goods were returned to the UK on 23 May 2011.

Riot Control Weapons: Turkey

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will investigate whether any tear gas exported to Turkey under the standard individual export licence granted in May 2011 was used on demonstrators in Turkey in 2013.

Michael Fallon: The licence granted in May 2011 was for temporary export of "inert tear gas/irritant ammunition" for exhibition purposes. It was a condition of the licence that the goods were returned to the UK within 12 months and they were returned on 23 May 2011. The licence did not authorise the export of any tear gas or "live" tear gas ammunition.

Royal Mail

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will break down the £31,400,000 for Royal Mail sale transaction costs in his Department's Supplementary Estimates 2013-14.

Michael Fallon: The Supplementary Estimate included a Reserve Claim to cover the cost of managing and realising the Royal Mail pension assets in 2013-14 of c£31.4 million. This is in line with the funding arrangement agreed with HM Treasury in May 2011, whereby costs over and above £50 million funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) would be met by HM Treasury. These assets transferred to Government from the Royal Mail Pension Plan in April 2012.
	The Supplementary Estimate also included a Reserve Claim to cover the total cost of the transaction estimated to be around £32.6 million of which £9.2 million is stamp duty, £13.1 million underwriters and intermediaries commission fees, £4.2 million underwriters' discretionary fee which has not been paid, and the balance the direct retail cost.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of shares in Royal Mail allocated to priority investors in its recent privatisation are still held by those investors.

Michael Fallon: As set out in the National Audit Office report, 22% of Royal Mail shares (220.5 million) were sold to priority investors. As set out in the NAO report, at the end of January, over a half of the shares remain owned by these investors. Some have sold all their shares; some sold part of their shareholding; and others have acquired more shares.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what process the Government adopted to (a) identify and (b) select priority investors in the recent Royal Mail privatisation.

Michael Fallon: The process of investor engagement commenced 12 months prior to the Initial Public Offering (IPO), in the initial period, Royal Mail's management met with over 60 high quality institutions to educate them about the business. During pilot fishing in early September 2013, the management team and the Government's banking advisers engaged further with a focused group of 21 well-informed and longer-term investors. Initial indications of potential demand were received from this group; this gave the Government the confidence to proceed with announcing the intention to float on 12 September 2013.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills for what reasons details of arrangements with priority investors in respect of the privatisation of Royal Mail were not published at the time of that privatisation.

Michael Fallon: The Government did not enter into any direct arrangements with investors. All institutional investors entered into agreements with the underwriting banks (the syndicate) to purchase their allocated shares at the offer price. This is standard practice and applied to all investors.
	Details of individual allocations were not disclosed because all investors in Royal Mail—whether individuals or institutions—have a legitimate expectation of privacy.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many officials from (a) his Department and (b) its executive agencies and associated public bodies worked on the Royal Mail privatisation.

Michael Fallon: The core team working on the sale of Royal Mail shares was comprised of 17 people. None of the Department's partner organisations were involved in taking forward the initial public offering.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the names are of (a) the 16 priority investors selected and (b) the 21 priority investors under initial consideration by the Government in the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Michael Fallon: All investors in Royal Mail, whether individuals or institutions, have a legitimate expectation of privacy. It would not be appropriate to disclose the list of institutions that were allocated shares in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) or the names of investors that participated in the investor engagement prior to the IPO.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 16 December 2013, Official Report, column 415, on Royal Mail, over what time period the (a) final price achieved and (b) aftermarket performance of the shares will be assessed under the benchmarks set by the Government.

Michael Fallon: We have not set a rigid timetable for the assessment of whether the discretionary payment should be made. As seen in recent days, there is still volatility in Royal Mail's share price.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what (a) discussions and (b) correspondence has taken place between (i) his Department, (ii) Royal Mail, (iii) banks acting as bookrunners, co-ordinators and lead managers and (iv) priority investors since the privatisation of Royal Mail took place; and if he will publish any such relevant correspondence.

Michael Fallon: Since the Initial Public Offering, my Department has had discussions with Royal Mail in our continuing role as a minority shareholder in Royal Mail.
	There has been ad hoc contact with the Global Co-ordinators primarily to help with inquiries about the IPO but no formal correspondence.
	It is not appropriate to publish correspondence relating to the above on the grounds that it relates to our shareholding or has been provided to help develop Government policy and to do so would inhibit the free and frank advice or exchange of views for the purposes of internal deliberation.
	This Department has not had discussions or corresponded with the priority investors.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what (a) verbal and (b) contractual agreement was made with priority investors in relation to their shareholders during the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Michael Fallon: No verbal or contractual agreement of any description—including future intentions for shareholdings—was made between the Government and any investor in the Royal Mail Initial Public Offering (IPO). Any suggestion that there was a “gentleman's agreement” is false.

Royal Mail

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what involvement (a) the bank acting as financial adviser to the Government and (b) banks acting as bookrunners, co-ordinators and lead managers had in discussions with priority investors on the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Michael Fallon: Together with Royal Mail's management team, the Government's independent financial adviser (Lazard) and members of the banking syndicate met with the priority investors throughout the investor engagement process. The banking advisers also met with over 500 institutional investors. The purpose of this engagement was to educate investors about the business and secure indications of potential demand and valuation.

Supermarkets

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 12 March 2014, Official Report, column 220W, on bananas, what the evidential basis is for his statement that the grocery retail market is working well for UK consumers.

Jennifer Willott: The most recent assessment by the Competition Commission of competition in the grocery retail sector (“The supply of groceries in the UK market investigation”, 2008) found that the sector generally worked well for UK consumers and that the main retailers were not exploiting dominant positions.
	If there is evidence of anti-competitive behaviour in the groceries retail sector, this should be sent to the Competition and Markets Authority.

Carbon Price Floor

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much has been disbursed in compensation for the carbon price floor in each month since April 2013.

Michael Fallon: The Government are waiting for state aid approval from the European Commission for the carbon price floor compensation scheme. We expect to get a final decision later this month and we are hopeful that we will be able to commence the scheme shortly thereafter.

Timber

Anne McGuire: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding has been invested by the Green Investment Bank in the development of wood-based industries and technologies.

Michael Fallon: The Green Investment Bank (GIB) may invest only in specified green sectors. Its scope to finance projects involving wood based industries is limited to projects that use either waste wood recovered from landfill or wood pellets made from forestry management waste as biomass fuel to generate renewable energy. GIB has directly committed £12 million of debt finance to one project that uses waste wood to generate electricity and £100 million of finance towards the conversion of Drax power station to run partly on biomass fuel pellets rather than coal. In addition, the Bank has indirectly committed through its specialist fund managers £37 million of finance to projects that generate power from recovered waste wood and £21 million to projects that generate power from biomass pellets. Information about these and other GIB transactions to date can be found on the GIB website:
	www.greeninvestmentbank.com

Timber

Anne McGuire: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much regional growth funding has been allocated to LEPs for wood-focused initiatives to create jobs in rural areas.

Michael Fallon: Agriculture is a restricted sector under State Aid rules, therefore regional growth funds cannot be allocated to Local Enterprise Partnerships for wood-focused initiatives.

UK Trade and Investment: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what support the First Minister of Scotland has received from UK Trade & Investment ahead of his upcoming visit to the US.

Michael Fallon: UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in New York and San Francisco have worked closely with the First Minister's team in planning arrangements for his visit.
	The Consul-General in New York hosted a lunch at his residence on 7 April 2014 in association with Scottish Development International (SDI) and Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) for the First Minister and 17 Scottish companies in the accompanying trade mission, to which key business figures in the US were invited.
	On 8 April 2014 SDI and mission delegates attended a UKTI briefing discussion on marketing in the US. Mission companies will have access to meeting rooms for one-to-one meetings throughout the week, as well as UKTI staff who will be available to discuss business opportunities in the US market. UKTI staff are also supporting a number of events during the week, including the US office launch on 5 April 2014, of Scottish based Smarter Grid Solutions and other events where mission delegates will be present.
	For the visit of the Scottish Government's External Affairs and International Development Minister, Huzma Yousaf, UKTI contributed to the guest list for Mr Yousaf s Scotland Week reception in San Francisco. UKTI also contributed to energy sector invitees for the World Trade Centre-Northern California breakfast event for the Minister, as requested by the World Trade Centre.

UK Trade and Investment: Turkey

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many UK Trade & Investment staff were based in Turkey in (a) May 2010, (b) December 2013 and (c) March 2014.

Michael Fallon: In March 2014 there were 20 people working on trade and investment (18.9 full-time equivalent FTE) in Turkey. This figure was not materially different in either May 2010 or December 2013.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Children: Day Care

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department has taken to provide families with financial assistance in caring for a child; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Penning: The Department provides families with financial assistance in caring for a child through disability living allowance, carer's allowance and the disability and carer premiums in the income-related benefits.

Child Maintenance

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of the progress of the Child Support Agency in restarting committal proceedings since the end of the moratorium.

Steve Webb: Following the initial review of its commitment to prison processes the Child Support Agency has continued to develop and evolve its processes and procedures, particularly in relation to the non-resident parent's ability to make payment.
	As a result of increased focus on gaining payment compliance prior to considering commitment proceedings, the volume of commitment applications made remains lower than during the period preceding the moratorium.
	The Agency is however continuing to make both new commitment applications and applications where the parent has defaulted on the terms of a commitment sentence where this seems the enforcement measure most likely to secure payment compliance.

Child Maintenance

Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in how many cases the Child Support Agency has started committal proceedings in each of the last five years.

Steve Webb: Pursuant to my written answer on 20 January 2014, Official Report, columns 42-43W, information on the number of cases in which the Child Support Agency has started committal proceedings is only readily available from 2010. The following table shows the number of cases where committal proceedings were started for each of the last three complete financial years and the current year to date:
	
		
			 Financial year Committal proceedings started 
			 April 2010 - March 2011 3,270 
			 April 2011 - March 2012 3,560 
			 April 2012 - March 2013 300 
			 April 2013 - December 2013 10 
			 Notes: 1. Following a Court Of Appeal decision in October 2012, a review of the commitment to prison process was carried out to ensure it complied with the terms of the judgement given in that case. Whilst doing so, applications for commitment to prison were not brought before the court. Procedures resumed from March 2013. 2. Data sourced from the Tallyman Informer system. 3. Data rounded to the nearest 10.

Housing Benefit

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much local authorities in (a) St Albans, (b) Hertfordshire, (c) the East of England and (d) the UK have returned to his Department in unused discretionary housing payment funding since 2011; and what steps he is taking to ensure that such funds are targeted towards those most in need.

Esther McVey: The Department has responsibility for the funding of discretionary housing payments (DHP) in Great Britain, but not the UK. The following table shows the amounts of unused DHPs returned to the Department since 2011 for the respective areas. The figures for 2013-14 will be available in due course once the information has been collated from local authorities.
	
		
			 Local authority area Under spend since 2011 (£) 
			 St Albans 18,717 
			 Hertfordshire 72,108 
			 Eastern England 1,494,137 
			 Great Britain 20,982,679 
		
	
	The Department provides local authorities with a guidance manual and good practice guide to aide them in the administration of the DHP scheme. This has recently been updated following informal consultation with stakeholder groups and local authority practitioners. The new guidance encourages councils to make longer term awards where appropriate to those with ongoing needs.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the number of children in poverty affected by the under-occupancy penalty since its introduction; and if he will make a statement.

Esther McVey: This information can be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
	This Government has made good progress in tackling the root causes of child poverty and has recently published the 2014-17 draft child poverty strategy for consultation which outlines the actions we are taking. The latest figures from 2011-12 show that 2.3 million children (17%) are in relative income poverty-down 300,000 since 2009-10. These are the lowest levels since the mid-1980s. The number of children in workless households has fallen by more than 270,000 since 2010, which is key to driving down poverty.

Jobcentre Plus

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what disability awareness training is provided to disability employment advisers in Jobcentre Plus.

Esther McVey: DWP staff have access to the ‘Raising the Game on Disability’ Seminar, which builds disability knowledge and confidence in working with disabled people. The ‘Hidden Impairment Toolkit’ training provides practical advice and guidance on how best to support individuals, into employment. This approach enables the anticipation of reasonable adjustments at appropriate stages of the individual's journey to work.
	For all disability employment advisers (DEA) additional learning appropriate to this specialist area has been designed in conjunction with DWP occupational psychologists to enable DEA's to provide effective support to people with particularly complex health-related needs.

Jobcentre Plus

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the extent of the availability of free telephones in jobcentres for jobseekers to contact officials within his Department.

Esther McVey: Jobcentres provide face to face support for claimants. There is also controlled access to telephones for claimants who need to contact officials in this Department over the phone.

Jobseeker's Allowance

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Birkenhead, of 18 November 2013, Official Report, column 674W, on jobseeker's allowance, what assessment he has made of the (a) monitoring system which checks that sanctions by Jobcentre Plus staff are applied appropriately and (b) outcome of independent reviews undertaken into sites making exceptional numbers of referrals of clients to decision makers.

Esther McVey: It is for local and district management to ensure Jobcentre Plus staff apply labour market conditionality fairly and consistently, taking into account individual claimant circumstances; and to make sure referrals to decision makers are appropriate and of consistently good quality.
	Independent reviews undertaken last year suggested that referral rates were appropriate. Findings from those reviews are fed back into operations to help inform ongoing monitoring and delivery.

Jobseeker's Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what average time is taken to re-imburse a jobseeker's allowance claimant who has been wrongly sanctioned.

Esther McVey: We do not hold any information that just captures the average time it takes to reimburse a jobseeker's allowance claimant who has been wrongly sanctioned.
	Once a decision is made that a sanction is no longer appropriate the decision maker notifies our JSA claims maintenance teams. They identify these decisions as priority work and endeavour to input the revised decision into our system and pay any benefit due as soon as possible. For JSA our aim is to clear 90% of changes in six days. Based on year to date information, up to February 2014, we are achieving 94.9% on JSA.

Jobseeker's Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when his Department plans to publish revised statistics on the number of people who have successfully appealed a sanction decision.

Esther McVey: DWP statisticians identified an error in the JSA sanctions appeal outcomes data. In line with normal practice for official statistics the Department has withdrawn this particular set of information. The data will be made available again as soon as possible pending investigations by DWP statisticians who will, if necessary, make corrections to this data.
	For further information see here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions

Jobseekers Allowance: Rossendale

Jake Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people normally resident in Rossendale and Darwen constituency were prosecuted for offences relating to fraudulent claims for jobseeker's allowance in each of the last five years.

Esther McVey: The information requested is not readily available because the data are not collated in a format for Rossendale and Darwen constituency only. This information could only be provided by examining individual investigation files which would incur disproportionate cost.

Remploy

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions why Remploy Employment Services is now called Remploy; and whether his Department will continue to fund employment services provided by Remploy.

Esther McVey: Remploy has formally always existed as a single company, Remploy Ltd. Remploy Ltd managed the operation of its business through two different arms: Remploy Enterprise Businesses, the factories, and Remploy Employment Services. Following the completion of Remploy's commercial process to exit its factory businesses it has decided that there is no longer a need to differentiate between the businesses, and it is now using Remploy only, as previously.
	The Department agrees Remploy funding and performance targets, including Work Choice job outcome targets, on an annual basis. Remploy's performance targets for 2013-14 were published on 31 October 2013, Official Report, column 60WS, by written ministerial statement confirming publication of Remploy annual report and accounts 2013. Remploy performance targets and funding for 2014-15 will be published alongside the 2014 accounts later this year.

Social Security Benefits: Disability

Naomi Long: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will review his decision not to carry out a cumulative impact assessment on the effect of welfare reform on people with disability.

Michael Penning: The Government regularly produce analysis of the cumulative impact of all coalition changes, including welfare, on households across the income distribution. This information is produced by the Treasury and is published alongside every Budget and Autumn Statement, in the interests of transparency. The previous Government did not provide this type of analysis. The most recent update was published with the Budget on 19 March 2014, and can be found using the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293738/budget_2014_distributional_analysis.pdf
	Distributional analysis is provided for the whole population on the basis of household income and household expenditure. However this is not disaggregated to the level of household characteristics such as disability status or lower level geographies. No organisation is able to do this robustly.
	This analysis estimates the effect of coalition measures from all fiscal events from the Budget in June 2010 to the Budget in 2014. It also includes changes that were announced before the Budget in June 2010 that have been implemented by this Government. Current coalition policies are compared with what might have happened if the previous Government's policies had continued into the future without any further fiscal consolidation.
	The Government currently have no plans to undertake a review or change the decision on cumulative impact assessments.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 25 March 2014, Official Report, column 986W, on social security benefits, what the total amount of benefit withheld as a result of sanctions was in each of the last two years.

Esther McVey: The Department does not estimate the amount of benefit withheld as a result of benefit sanctions. The sanctions regime is designed to ensure claimants comply with their requirements in order to move off benefits and into work.
	The answer of 25 March 2013, Official Report, column 986W, on social security benefits, contained a calculation of the amount of jobseeker's allowance (JSA) that claimants would have received if they had continued to be on benefit for the length of a fixed sanction. This is not the same as the amount withheld as a result of sanctions.
	As the previous answer made clear, it is not possible to robustly estimate the actual amounts withheld as we do not know what would have happened in the absence of sanctions. For example, of claimants who leave benefit during a sanction - some may have left irrespective of the sanction being applied, and some may have left because of the sanction. Furthermore, the previous calculation did not include sanctions for employment support allowance sanctions, income support for lone parents sanctions or JSA varied length sanctions and disentitlements as reliable data on the length of sanction or disentitlement is not readily available. Finally, the calculation did not net the figures for hardship payments.

Social Security Benefits: Young People

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 27 March 2014, Official Report, columns 348-49W, on social security benefits: young people, if he will publish any information relevant to the original question that is available at proportionate cost.

Esther McVey: Information on jobseeker’s allowance severe hardship decisions for 16 and 17-year-olds is provided in the following tables but please be aware that it does not relate solely to estrangement. Information on income support and employment support allowance is not available. Similarly it is not possible to disaggregate appeals information on an age basis.
	
		
			 JSA 16/17-year-olds claims to severe hardship, 2013 
			  Apr 2013 May 2013 Jun 2013 Jul 2013 Aug 2013 Sep 2013 Oct 2013 Nov 2013 Dec 2013 Jan 2014 Feb 2014 
			 JSA 16/17-year-old claims 1,017 939 797 832 681 654 661 712 700 646 661 
		
	
	
		
			 JSA 16/17-year-old severe hardship awarded 762 738 597 641 496 485 508 553 565 459 523 
			 JSA 16/17-year-old severe hardship claims % awarded 74.93 78.59 74.91 77.04 72.83 74.16 76.85 77.67 80.71 71.05 79.12 
			 JSA 16/17-year-old severe hardship refused 255 201 200 191 185 169 153 159 135 187 138 
		
	
	
		
			  Apr 2012 May 2012 Jun 2012 July 2012 Aug 2012 Sep 2012 Oct 2012 Nov 2012 Dec 2012 Jan 2013 Feb 2013 Mar 2013 
			 JSA 16/17-year-old claims 1,341 1,589 1,164 1,365 1,211 966 1,125 1,167 1,168 1,092 1,211 987 
			 JSA 16/17-year-old severe hardship awarded 1,056 1,248 900 1,068 910 745 834 925 902 816 944 768 
			 JSA 16/17-year-old severe hardship claims % awarded 78.75 78.54 77.32 78.24 75.14 77.12 74.13 79.26 77.23 74.73 77.95 77.81 
			 JSA 16/17-year-old severe hardship refused 285 341 264 297 301 221 291 242 266 276 267 219 
			 Source: Management Information System programme (MISP).

Universal Credit

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he plans to implement a universal credit sanctions scheme to replace the current jobseeker's allowance and other sanctions scheme.

Esther McVey: In 2012 revised sanctions regimes introduced into jobseeker's allowance and employment and support allowance moved us towards the universal credit system, with the same value of sanction across all benefits and the same duration of sanctions at medium and high levels.
	We continue to monitor sanctions closely and consider opportunities for continuous improvement.

Vacancies: Lancashire

Jake Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment vacancies were advertised in Jobcentre Plus offices in (i) Rossendale and (ii) Darwen in the latest period for which figures are available.

Esther McVey: We do not advertise in jobcentres, all vacancies are now advertised on Universal Jobmatch System, which was introduced in November 2012. The system does not provide data at jobcentre level, as all vacancies notified to the system are available to ail users.

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints have been made about the Work Programme on the grounds of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 since June 2011.

Esther McVey: The Department requires providers to work directly with individuals to resolve complaints about their service. Records of complaints received are retained by providers.
	If the individual is unhappy with the response to their complaint from the provider they can take their complaint directly to the Independent Case Examiner's Service.